


Descendant of Hogwarts: The Magic Begins

by QueenlingMonster



Series: Descendant Of Hogwarts [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Best Friends, Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Developing Friendships, Dursley Family Bashing (Harry Potter), Evil Voldemort (Harry Potter), Friendship, Gen, Good Draco Malfoy, Good Fred Weasley & George Weasley, Good Slytherins, Gryffindor & Slytherin Inter-House Friendships, Gryffindor vs. Slytherin Rivalry, Harry Potter & Ron Weasley Friendship, Hermione Granger is a Good Friend, Hogwarts Inter-House Friendships, Hufflepuff & Slytherin Inter-House Friendships, Jealous Draco Malfoy, Mentor Severus Snape, Misguided Albus Dumbledore, Protective Fred Weasley, Protective George Weasley, Ron Weasley Bashing, Severus Snape Has a Heart, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2017-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:13:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 58,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26457736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenlingMonster/pseuds/QueenlingMonster
Summary: Anastasia Potter is the twin sister to the famous Harry Potter. Together they are The Chosen Ones, but they don't think that of each other. To each other, he is the older outgoing twin, but Anastasia is the shy twin that follows behind her brother. Except, Anastasia has been mute ever since THAT night. Her only way to communicate with people has been through writing. How will she manage in this new world full of magic and danger? Or even worse: Will she be able to keep her first friend?
Relationships: Draco Malfoy & Original Female Character(s), Fred Weasley & George Weasley, Fred Weasley & George Weasley & Original Female Character(s), Gregory Goyle & Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter & Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger & Original Female Character(s), Severus Snape & Original Female Character(s), Vincent Crabbe & Gregory Goyle, Vincent Crabbe & Gregory Goyle & Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Descendant Of Hogwarts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1923337
Kudos: 2





	1. Prologue

A cold breeze is rustling the red, orange, and yellow leaves of the trees. Laughter from the children in costumes has died out a long time ago. Teens are finally heading home to get some sleep before school the next day. Parents are sneaking some candy from their children’s bags. Godric’s Hallow is finally dark and silent on this night. Well, almost. One house has it’s lights on inside and a man’s laugh floating out of the house. A toddler’s squeal is soon following.  


Inside the pumpkin and apple smelling house, a man with dark brown unruly hair is throwing a blue haired toddler into the air. She squeals as she lands again, and her entire body is shaking from her happiness. Her father laughs at the pure joy coming from the one-year-old. The toddler’s attention zeros in on the shiny round glasses that adorns the man’s face. Without any hesitation, she reaches with her chubby hands and clumsily grabs them off his face.  


“What are you doing, sweetie?” he asks while laughing. Obviously, the girl doesn’t say anything back but instead places the glasses on herself. One side of them is on her cheek while the other side is just laying in the correct position. Her father shakes his head slightly before readjusting the glasses on her face.  


The creaking of the floorboards makes the father and daughter look to see who just entered the room. She immediately starts to bounce and clap her hands when she sees the red-haired woman holding her twin. The toddler looks exactly like the father.  


“James, it’s past their bedtime,” Lily says with a smile. She looks down at her son who is laying his head against her shoulder. Her husband nods his head in understanding and jumps off the couch with an extra oomph. Another shrieking laugh fills the air as the daughter continues to hold onto the glasses.  


It’s not until she is gently laid into her white crib that she finally let’s go of her father’s property. James quickly, but gently, grabs the glasses from her face before her attention returns to them. He still remembers the last time his sweet girl took something from him. He didn’t get it back until bedtime that day. His daughter’s attention has already moved onto her favorite teddy bear that is right next to her. She grabs it’s chest and pulls it closer as James tucks her into her blanket. He brushes her hair away before softly booping her nose.  


“Goodnight, Ana,” he says to her before leaving to say goodnight to his son. A yawn escapes the girl and her eyes sink closed. She barely is awake to hear feel or hear her mom say goodnight.  


The bloodcurdling scream of Lily awakes Anastasia who in turn starts to cry. She looks around in quick succession before landing on her mom. Why is her mom on the floor? Anastasia glances on her brother who is also crying. An unknown man’s voice brings the attention to both toddlers. He is pointing a stick towards them and shouting something that they didn’t hear.  


“Momma!” she shrieks her first word as a green light head towards them. An excruciating burn envelope her throat, and she screams with all of her might. Why isn’t mom saving her? Where is her dad? The burn gets worse and worse before she finally blacks out from the pain. All the while, she continues to hear her brother screaming besides her crib.


	2. Letters

There is a loud banging on wood that is getting louder by each passing minute. Sighing I roll over in the cramp space that I am supposed to call my room. I feel my older brother move around next to me before he finally sits up. Our aunt is yelling at us to get up, and slams on the door one more time before walking off. Harry starts shaking me to get up, while he puts his round glasses on. Rolling over again, I open my gold eyes to look up at my brother. 

“We have to get up now, Anastasia,” he whispers in his morning rustic voice. Nodding my head, I sit up to quickly braid my dark sapphire waist-length hair before I almost open the door. Unfortunately, before I can open the door that lets us out of the small under the stairs closet, our cousin starts racing down the stairs above us. Dudley, our cousin, goes back up the stairs to right over our heads, then starts jumping up and down, which is making wood dust fall onto us. 

“Wake up, Potters! We’re going to the zoo!” he yells at us, and runs down the stairs. I open the door and start crawling out, when I feel a hand on my head push me back into the room hard. The same hand also slams the door shut, and I starts massaging my head, while I quickly get up from my brother, who I fell on top of just now. Placing my left hand on his shoulder, I look at him with a look that asks if he is all right. 

“I’m all right, Anastasia, don’t worry about it. Are you okay?” he asks me, and I nod my head with a close-eyed smile. This time when I crawl out of the cupboard from underneath the stairs, no one pushes us back in, which I’m grateful for. Harry crawls out next, and we walk into the door on our right, which leads into the kitchen. 

Aunt Petunia is hugging cousin Dudley when we enter the kitchen, while Uncle Vernon is reading the newspaper at the dining room table. Today is cousin Dudley’s birthday, and he is completely spoiled to the bones. There are thirty-six presents of all shapes and sizes waiting for him in the living room. 

“You two, can start making the breakfast,” aunt Petunia scoffs at us, and I walk over to the bacon. 

“Yes, Aunt Petunia,” Harry says and walks over to toast some bread in the toaster. I simply nod my head, and try to not burn the bacon. Out of the corner of my gold eyes, I notice that she covers Dudley’s eyes to surprise him with all the presents, while she keeps calling him the birthday boy. She lets go of his face, but instead of being surprise or happy, he has a look of ‘I’m-better-than-this’ and turns to his father. 

What this father-son duo have in common is obesity and meanness, while the mother also has the meanness, she also is skinny like a tooth pick. She has medium length black hair, while Vernon has short blonde hair. Dudley has short black hair that is polished nicely. They are all dressed in neat, well-mannered clothing that shows people that this is a respectable family. 

Harry has short pitch-black hair that no matter what anyone does, it is always messy. He also has bright green eyes underneath his round wire-rimmed glasses that are slightly broken in the lens area. The only similarity between us is that we are both deathly skinny, because we don’t eat as well as the rest of this family. Like I said before, I have waist long blue hair that is so soft that people must do a double take when they touch it. Thankfully, I have twenty-twenty vision with my liquid gold colored eyes, because I don’t think I would look good with glasses. Unlike the other’s neat clothing, my brother is wearing old hand-me-downs of Dudley’s, while I am wearing old Aunt Petunia’s old clothes that don’t fit her anymore. These clothes are too big for the both of us, so, are clothes are baggy and defiantly not neat. 

Snapping out of my daze, I take the bacon off the stove and bring it over to my uncle. Right when I put two strips of bacon down, my cousin decides to perform one of his famous tantrums that make me want to rip my ears off my head. 

“How many are there?” he asks, and Vernon replies with a proud thirty-six. That is when my cousin let’s his spoiled attitude take over, “Thirty-six! It was thirty-seven last year!” 

“Don’t worry pumpkin, we will buy you two new presents. How does that sound?” Petunia says to him before he gets too far in his tantrum. My older twin looks at him in disgust, while I just try to keep out of Dudley’s way. I agree with Harry though, but I just decide that I’m going to ignore them, and focus on putting the bacon on everyone’s plate. 

After we have breakfast, we head towards the minivan to go to the zoo. Usually, Harry and I are dropped off at a neighbor’s house, but the neighbor that usually babysits us has broken something that makes her unavailable to take us in. Personally, I am glad I am going with the Dursley family, but that neighbor woman was not a nice person. Well, the Dursleys are not nice either, but at least I get to go to the zoo. 

Before Harry and I walk into the van, Vernon shuts the car door and looks down at us. He uses his car key to point at us, and he looks at us in disgust like Harry did to Dudley this morning. 

“Now, no funny business. Any funny business, any at all, and you both won’t eat any meals for a week. Understand?” he growls at us, and we both nod our heads. Uncle Vernon leaves us alone, and we walk into the van. Unfortunately, we have to pick up one of Dudley’s friends before we can go to the zoo, and if anyone puts those two together, they are really mean bullies that don’t like us. I don’t know why, but those two use Harry as their own personal punching bag, while I am their verbal abuse bag. Their insults do hurt a lot of the times, but Harry always comes and draws their attention away from me, which I am very grateful for. 

We arrive at the zoo, and we head into the building that holds the reptilian exhibits. The very first reptile we all look at is a Brazilian snake, but he is asleep right now. Poor snake, he must deal with Dudley knocking on the glass shouting for it to wake up. After Harry almost shouts at Dudley that the snake is asleep, our cousin and his friend walk off to the next reptile. Aunt and uncle leaves us alone too, so we lean against the railing. 

“Sorry about him,” Harry apologizes to the snake, while the snake lifts his head up to us. I give it an apologetic smile, but say nothing as I watch the two interact with each other. My big brother looks surprise and says to the snake, “Can you hear me?” 

The snake nods his head at Harry, and looks at me then bows his head a little bit. Surprise is all over our faces, while we try to comprehend that a snake can understand us. Snake, do you understand me too? He nods his at me, which really blows my mind, because I didn’t say anything, I thought that sentence. Tugging on Harry’s sleeve, I point to my head then at the snake. He looks confuse for a second before he realizes what I am saying. 

“The snake knows what you said in your mind,” he says and I nod my head happily. Harry looks even more surprise and looks back at the snake, which is still staring at us. How is Brazil? I mean, don’t you miss your family? The snake looks sad in a way, and looks over at the metal plate on the wall next to the glass exhibit. Looking at it, I notice that it says that the snake is bred in captivity. Oh! So, you don’t know your parents then? He shakes his head no, and a pang of sadness hits my heart. 

“Don’t worry, that is kind of our situation too,” Harry says, when he notices what I am looking at and read the captivity thing. We look at each other sadly, because it is true we are practically being raised in captivity. Brother and I don’t remember anything about our parents, because they died in a car crash when we were born. All we have ever known is our aunt, uncle, and cousin. 

“Mom! Dad! You won’t believe what the snake is doing!” Dudley shouts and push us onto the ground next to the glass exhibit. My head hits the cement hard enough to make me bleed a little bit. Harry notices that my head is bleeding, and looks at our cousin with hate. The next thing we know, the glass disappears into thin air, which makes our cousin and his friend fall into the exhibit. While the two boys are flailing in the water, the long boa constrictor slithers out of the exhibit and onto the floor in front of us. 

“Thanksssss,” the snake says to us, and slithers out of the building, while the people at the zoo are screaming snake, along with running away. Harry and I look at each other before we look at the two bullies in the water. They finally stop flailing and stand up in the water. The weirdest part out of all of this is, is that when they try to walk out of the snake exhibit, the glass is back in its place. Dudley and his friend start banging on the glass, when our aunt comes back to only scream, because her precise little boy is stuck in a snake room. My older brother looks away from the family, and looks at the cut on my head. He takes off the plaid cover shirt and puts it on the wound for me to hiss in pain. 

“Don’t worry it isn’t big enough to need stitches, but we are going to need a first aid kit,” my brother whispers soothingly, while our uncle is glaring at us with hatred. While none of us is focusing on anything, a first aid kit appears at my side, and I nearly jump out of my skin. How did that kit appear out of thin air like the glass? Did we do that or did one of us do that? Harry opens the kit and takes a couple of stitch like band-aides. He puts them on the cut on my forehead then kisses it twice to get better, which is what we do for each other every time we get hurt. 

When we get back to the house, a wet Dudley, and an upset Petunia rush into the house, while we get to deal with uncle Vernon. He grabs us both by the ear, hurtfully might I had, and drag us into the house, while Harry is shouting at him. 

“I swear we didn’t do! One minute it was there and then the next it was gone! It was like magic!” he keeps shouting until we arrive at our room underneath the stairs. Uncle Vernon throws us into the cupboard and locked the door behind us. Our uncle opens the vent in the door and one sentence. 

“There is no such thing as magic!” he says in a low voice, before sharply closing the vent. Harry and I are left in the darkness underneath the stairs. All I will say is that I started crying with my five-minute older brother holding me against his chest. 

The next day, we are let out of the room for breakfast. While I am helping, Petunia make breakfast, Harry pours the coffee into everyone’s cup, beside my cup which is filled with water. We hear the mail slot in the door move signaling that the mail is here. 

“Dudley, get the mail,” Vernon says to his son, while he continues to read the paper and his son is just eating his breakfast. Dudley being the lazy person he is, he tells his father to send us to go get it. Sighing in my head, I walk out the door with my brother trailing behind, and we walk to the front door. Harry picks the letters up, and looks through them before we head back. 

“Sister, we have a letter!” Harry whispers excitedly, and hands me an old looking letter. It says: Ms. A Potter The Cupboard under The Stairs 4 Privet Drive Little Whinging SURREY 

I look up at my brother, and curiosity slowly starts to eat away at my brain. Before I can even open the envelope, I hear Vernon’s loud voice telling us to hurry up. Looking at the letter and my brother one more time, we walk back into the kitchen with our letters still in our hands. My brother hands Vernon their mail, while we are still looking at our letters when a pudgy hand yanks my letter out of my hands. Dudley also takes Harry’s letter, while he yells to his parents that we got letters. 

“Hey, give them back! They are ours’,” my brother shouts, while I stomp my foot and glaring daggers at them. Vernon laughs at us and takes the letters from his son. 

“Who would be writing to you two?” he asks sarcastically, and looks at the front of the letters. When he reads the front, and looks at the crest on the back, his entire face along with Petunia turns deathly pale. They look up at us two, and we give an audible gulp of fear, because both adults look scared at us before looking back down at the letters. I have a feeling that we are going to be in HUGE trouble, brother, I force that thought into my brother’s mind, and he nearly jumps out of his clothes. He looks at me with a questioning look like he doesn’t believe that he just heard that in his mind. I silently nod my head in an approval gesture, and his eyes get wider behind his glasses. 

“Go to your room! NOW! You too, Dudley,” he shouts at us, and we bolt out of there to our room. Harry closes the door behind us, and he looks at me again with that same awestruck facial expression. 

“How did you do that, Anastasia?” he asks me, and I shrug my shoulders. All ready knowing, he is going to ask me to repeat what I did, I concentrate on forcing my thoughts into his head. I don’t know how I am doing this, but I simply am forcing my thoughts into your own. My mind’s voice sounds so sweet and innocent, which is probably what my actual voice would sound like if I could use it. He looks at me, but it seems like he is concentrating on something. Oh! He is trying to repeat what I did to him, but from his expression, I don’t think it is working out for him. 

“I can’t do that, sister,” he says in defeat with a shake of his head. Filling pity for my brother, I bring him into a hug and try to think of my words carefully before I think to him. Maybe, it is because I can’t speak, so, this is how I can communicate with you. Harry nods his head, while I shrug my shoulders again and lean my head against his shoulder. 

“How is your head, sister?” he asks me quietly, and I wince a little bit when I think about it. It feels better than it did yesterday, but it still hurts, big brother. My older brother nods his head, and we fall into complete silence until the next day. 

Ever since we received those letters, it became our mission to get another one if they ever send us anymore. Unfortunately, our aunt and uncle also made it their mission to make sure we never even get to see our letters. For the rest of the week, the same letters will appear in weirdly random places that they shoulder never be in. An example is that Aunt Petunia found some letters in the unbroken eggs that she recently just bought from the story. I mean, how is that possible? The arrival of the letters got so bad that Uncle Vernon nailed a wooden plank over the mail slot in the front door. Another weird thing that occurs with the letters is hundreds of owls landing all around the outside of the house. One time, Harry told me he found Uncle Vernon burning every single letter that arrived for us, which only makes me more upset. Finally, today is Sunday, which means no post or mail today, and that puts Vernon in a jolly mood. 

“Fine day, Sunday, and why is that Dudley?” he asks his son, while Harry and I are serving cookies to the family. 

“There are no posts on Sunday,” Harry says, while giving Vernon a cookie, because Dudley didn’t know what was so great about today. For the first time, ever, uncle Vernon praises Harry for knowing the right answer, and smile to Harry. Maybe, today will be a wonderful day for all of us. I grab one of the heavenly smelling chocolate chip cookies, and no one yells at me, which makes me smile even more. 

Unfortunately, this joyous day is short lived when we all hear a low rumbling sound. Harry and I look around to find the source of the noise when we realize that the sound is coming from the chimney area. It appears that everyone else also realizes where the sounds is coming from too, because pretty soon everyone is staring at the fireplace. A letter swoops into the living room and lands on the ground, but that isn’t the end of it. Hundreds and hundreds of letters start coming from the fireplace. Every single letter is addressed to either Harry or me, and it is quickly filling up the living room. Petunia and Dudley start shrieking in fear, while Vernon starts yelling no, as Harry jumps onto the living room table. He jumps around and grabs two letters from the air. Jumping down from the table, he hands me a letter and we bolt out of that room with uncle Vernon chasing us. 

Harry tries to unlock the cupboard, but it is too late. Uncle Vernon grabs us both by the waist, and we struggle to get out of his hold, but it is like trying to escape from a bear. 

“That is, it! We are moving far away! Where no one will ever find us!” he shouts, while both of us are still struggling to get free. Aunt Petunia and Dudley look from the kitchen doorway at us, and Dudley quickly looks up at Petunia before speaking. 

“Daddy has gone mad, hasn’t he?” he exclaims and she nods her head, while she still watches us fighting. Let me just say that we did not get to read any letters at all. 

Uncle Vernon isn’t lying when he said we were moving, because that same day we moved into a one room shack in the middle of the sea. There is only one bedroom, which the adults get, and Dudley gets the only couch. That means Harry and I are sleeping on the sandy floor, which sucks by the way. 

A raging storm is happening outside the shack, while large waves hit the rocks below the shack. My twin and I have only one thing blanket between us both, and we huddle together for warmth. We start making a picture in the dirt at around half an hour before midnight. By the time, it is a minute before midnight, Harry and I have drawn a birthday cake with candles in the sand. I write Happy 11th Birthday on top of the sand cake. We look over at Dudley’s wrist to see the clock say midnight, and I turn to my brother on my right side. Make a wish, Harry! He whispers the same thing to me, and together we blow out the sand candles. We are officially eleven years old, and I hug my twin, when a huge banging makes us both look up.


	3. Rubeus Hagrid

The wooden door of the shack is banging wildly, which wakes everyone up including Dudley, who sleeps like a log. Uncle Vernon, with Petunia behind him, stop at the bottom of the stairs and turn on the single light bulb in this entire place. Vernon takes a shotgun and aims it at the door, right as the door smashes into the sandy floor. A gigantic person walks into the small shack and looks at us.  
“Sorry about that,” the deep baritone voice of the man rings throughout the room. He picks up the wood door and places it back in the doorway. Getting a closer look at the man, I realize that he has long black hair and a long black beard. The man takes his giant trench coat off his body and flings it onto the couch. Uncle Vernon looks scared, but he gains enough confidence to talk to the strange man.  
“You are breaking and entering!” he shouts at the huge man, but the man simply glares at Vernon, while he walks over to the stairs. He takes the end of the shotgun, and looks at Vernon in the eyes.  
“Dry up, Dursley, you great prune!” he shouts, while he bends the end of the gun upwards. Uncle Vernon pulls the trigger and the gun shoots upward into the ceiling. While uncle and aunt are still looking scared, the man looks over at Dudley and walks toward him. He doesn’t seem like he sees us behind the fireplace wall, because he starts to talk to Dudley without even glancing at us.  
“Wow, Harry, you have grown so much!” he says to Dudley, but lowers his voice as he places his hand on his stomach, “Especially in the middle!” Harry looks at me, and takes my hand, while we walk out from our hiding place.  
“He is not Harry, I-I am,” my twin stutters at the end of his sentence, and I gently squeeze his hand to give him some comfort. He nods his head in thanks, and I focus my attention on the giant man in the small shack.  
“Well, of course you are,” the man says cheerfully, and puts a hand in his large trench coat.  
“I may have sat on it and one point, but they flavor is still good,” he says and takes out a white box that bakers us for their wares. My older brother takes the box, and we both slowly open it to find a wonderful sight. This stranger made us a cake with pink icing and green letters that spell out, ‘Happy Birthday’! The gesture is so sweet that tears start to fill my eyes, and I run over to the man. I tackle him in a bear hug, while my body language is telling him thank you, because I certainly can’t say thank you. Harry, tell him thank you for the both of us. He nods his head, but I don’t see it, because I am still hugging the stranger. After a minute or two later, I finally let the man go and step away from him to stand next to my brother. Salty tears are still streaming down my face, but there is also a happy smile playing on my lips.  
“Thank you, sir,” Harry says and the man nods in an acknowledgement. He walks over to the couch and sits down on it, while the couch slags to the ground from all the weight coming from the man. He takes out a pinkish umbrella and points it at the fireplace. Before anything else happens, light shoots out from the tip of the umbrella and enters the fireplace starting a fire. Harry and I look wide eyed at the fire, and I rub my eyes to make sure I am seeing this correctly. Looking over at my brother, he continues to stare at the fire, but he sets the cake down on a nearby table before he draws his attention to the man.  
“Excuse me, but who are you?” he asks the man curiously, and I nod my head in agreement. This man has broken into the shack, frightened everybody, gives us a birthday cake, and we don’t even know this man’s name.  
"Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts,” he says proudly and looks over at us. Hagrid adds in with a smile, “but you two already know about Hogwarts.”  
“I’m sorry, but what is Hogwarts?” brother asks Hagrid, and I shake my head to indicate that I have no idea what he is talking about. Mr. Hagrid looks at us in shock for a second before he takes some more.  
“Blimey, Harry, Anastasia, don’t you wonder where your parents learned it all?” he tells us, and I give him a confuse look that looks identical with Harry’s confused look. What is this man talking about, because as far as I believe our parents died in a car crash and left us with the Dursleys?  
“Learn what?” Harry asks the man, and the man gives us a knowing smile. Do you have any idea what he is going on about, big brother? Looking over at him, he gives me a shake of the head that tells me that he hasn’t the faintest idea what this man is talking about.  
“You’re a wizard, Harry, and Anastasia next to you is a witch,” Mr. Hagrid informs us, and I instantly freeze up in shock. Is this man serious? There is no such thing as magic as uncle Vernon tells us every day.  
“I-I can’t be…can’t be a-a wiz-wizard,” he says in utter shock and looks at the man in disbelief, “I mean, I’m just Harry…just Harry.”  
“Well, just Harry, haven’t you ever done anything or seen anything that can’t be explained?” he asks us with a knowing glint in his eyes, and my memories flash back to the zoo. My eyes widen in even more shock, when I realize that, that was us. From the look on my twin’s face, he must have gotten to the same conclusion as me. Mr. Hagrid stands up and ruffles through his trench coat, before he pulls out two identical looking letters. He hands Harry, his letter, and hands me, my letter. Excitement washes through me, as I finally get to open one of these letters that are supposed to be for me. I tare open the letter with happiness and eagerness. What have I been missing that requires this much planning and time? While I start to read mine, Harry decides to read the beginning of his letter aloud.  
“Dear Mr. Potter, we are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,” his tone is full of surprise and happiness, which makes me even more happy, because this is a first where he is truly happy. Big brother looks over at me, and we embrace each other in delight. We would continue to hug for a few more seconds before uncle Vernon decides to ruin this wonderful moment.  
“They will not be going! When we took them in, we swore that we would end this madness!” Vernon exclaims and he is fuming with rage. Flinching slightly, Harry pulls me away from our uncle, and becomes angry at him.  
“You knew! This whole time you knew and didn’t tell us!” he shouts at Vernon, and anger starts to bubble inside me too, because they should have told us instead of treating us like they did. Before Vernon could yell at my twin, aunt Petunia decides to interfere just so she can say her opinion on the matter.  
“Of course, we knew,” she says spitefully, and I cower behind Harry some more, “When my sister became eleven she got a letter too, and we learned we had a witch in the family. Isn’t it wonderful! Except, I was the only one who saw her as she was…a freak! Then she met that Potter, and then she had you two. We knew you two were going to be just as strange, just as… Then she got herself blown up, and we got landed with you.”  
“BLOWN UP! You said that our parents died in a car crash!” he shouts at them, and I step away from Harry as my anger boils over. I almost launch myself at them, but Harry takes a hold on my arms to make sure that nothing happens.  
“Car crash! A car crash killed Lily and James Potter! A scandal! An outrage!” Hagrid bellows, and looks at the Dursleys with anger. Trying to calm down, I think about his responses and realize that he must have known our parents to be this upset. After a minute, Harry lets go of my arms, but he pushes me lightly toward the couch. Sighing, I sit down on the couch, but I keep glaring at my aunt and uncle, while I see movement out of the corner of my eyes. Turning my head, I notice that Dudley has his face inside the box holding the cake, and is eating it like the pig he is.  
“They will not be going,” he says in a ‘this is final’ voice, but Hagrid doesn’t take that as an answer. I can just tell that he is despising this family more, because he decides to become sarcastic with them.  
“Oh! I guess that a great muggle like you are going to stop them,” Mr. Hagrid says, and I give him a quizzical look, while Harry asks him what muggle means. He looks briefly at us before saying, “Non-magical folk.”  
“These two have had their names down since they were born. AND they will be under the supervision of the best wizard in all of England, Albus Dumbledore,” he says again with a look of respect and admiration on his face. Vernon looks like he is ready to explode, and finally snaps.  
“I will not pay for a crack pot old fool teach them magic tricks!” this one sentence seems to snap Mr. Hagrid too, because he pulls his umbrella out and points it at Vernon. A wave of danger and anger rolls off the once kind man.  
“Don’t ever insult Albus Dumbledore in front of me,” he says in a low threatening voice, while he is still pointing his umbrella at them. Note to self, don’t ever make Mr. Hagrid angry, because he can get really scary if you insult Mr. Dumbledore. I notice that Hagrid looks over at Dudley, who is still eating our birthday cake, and looks back at Vernon. Quickly, he points his umbrella at my cousin and flicks his wrist, which makes light shoot out from the tip to Dudley’s bottom. Where the light hits him, a pig’s curly tail springs out from the pajama pants, and he starts screaming. Vernon and Petunia also notice the tail, which makes them scream also, but it is different for us. Big brother and I start laughing, while the three-people run out of the room and upstairs, locking the door in the process.  
Mr. Hagrid takes out a small pocket watch from his pocket, while he mumbles underneath his breath. I slowly stand up and walk over to Harry. We watch Hagrid as he seems to be thinking over something, before looking up at us. He gives us a smile and starts to turn toward the door.  
“We should be going now,” he says as he pulls the door down onto the ground again. When he realizes, we aren’t moving yet, and looks at us with amusement written all over his face, “That is if you want to stay here, of course.” He gives us a look, and then walks out into the stormy night. Harry and I look at each other one more time, before we walk out of the door and into a new adventure.


	4. Diagon Alley

We are on a train heading towards London, which will be my first time going to London. Everyone has been giving us weird looks, because no one has seen someone as tall as Mr. Hagrid before today. Personally, Harry and I can share their sentiments, because Hagrid is like nine feet tall. The train is practically empty minus us and a woman, who is as far away from us as possible. My brother decides to take this time to read the school list aloud, while I simply stare out the window and listen to my brother’s voice. So far, the school list sounds ridiculous, and I wonder how we are going to get all this stuff.

Finally, the train ride ends and we start walking through London, but Harry is still reading the Hogwarts supply list. How long is this darn list? I take Harry left hand, and continue to look around at all the buildings in this city. After a minute or two, my twin looks up from the list to Hagrid, who is on my left, and ask him the very same question I was wondering on the train.

“Could we find all of this in London?” he asks him, and I look up at the giant man too. He looks down at us, and leans in before he says anything.

“If you know where to go,” he says mysteriously, which for some reason makes me smile in glee. Skipping next to Harry, I look up at a rickety old sign that says ‘Leaky Cauldron’ and we enter the old rickety building that the sign belongs to.

I quickly realize that the Leaky Cauldron is a pub of some kind, and it seems to be popular with the folk around here. There is a lot of people sitting at the tables and such, but they are wearing weird clothes that are adorned with different colored cloaks. The entire room is filled with cloudy smoke that makes Harry and I cough while moving our hands in front of our faces to dispel the smoke. Behind the bar is a nice looking middle aged man that seems to know Hagrid, because he smiles when he sees the giant bearded man behind us.

“Ah, Hagrid! The usual, I presume!” the man says happily, but Mr. Hagrid shakes his head no and puts his hands on our shoulders.

“Sorry, Tom, but I am on official Hogwarts business,” he says happily then decides to include us into his conversation with the bartender, “I am taking Harry and Anastasia here to get their Hogwarts supplies.”

“Bless my soul! It is Harry and Anastasia Potter!” the man sounds like he is awestruck, when he realizes who we are. How does he know our last name, big brother? Harry shrugs, but doesn’t look at me, and I focus back into what is happening. The busy room goes deathly silent as everyone stops moving and talking, because they all turn to look at us with surprise on their faces. The silence is eerily quiet and it starts to feel uncomfortable until the person nearest to us decides to break it. He rushes toward us and grabs our hands. The man keeps shaking our hands while he tells us it is an honor to meet us. Soon there is a line and every single person shakes our hands while telling us either welcome back or it is an honor to meet us.

Finally, Hagrid decides that we have had enough and starts to head through the pub until we are stopped by one more person. This man is wearing a darkish purple turban that suits his purple suit slash robe that every wizard and witch is apparently wearing. He seems to be very nervous, but at the same time he seems a little bit creepy.

“H-hello, P-P-Potters,” the man stutters, while he wrings his hands. Mr. Hagrid looks at the man that is talking and recognition appears on his face with a smile.

“Oh! Professor Quirrel, I didn’t see you there!” Hagrid says cheerfully, and Quirrel gives him a nervous smile. I look over at Harry, who simply shakes his head, and I look back at the man.

“Harry, Anastasia, I would like you to meet Professor Quirrel. He is the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts,” Hagrid says with pride, and we look at the nervous man with a little bit more respect. Harry says hi and holds out his hand for the teacher to shake, but the man simply looks at my brother’s hand before he continues to speak.

“N-not t-that you need i-it, e-e-eh P-Potters,” he tries for a joke, and I give him a polite smile for his attempt. Right after he says that, Hagrid leads us out of the pub and into the outside of the pub building.

“See, you two, you’re famous!” he says with jolly in his voice. Harry asks the giant why we are so famous, but he wouldn’t tell us, which makes me sad to some degree. It is hard to walk into some strange building with a lot of strange people in it, and they all look at me with awe in their eyes, but I don’t even know why they looked at me like that. Shaking my head, I look up to see the giant facing the brick wall, and he presses certain bricks with his umbrella.

Amazement washes over both our faces, when the bricks start to recede apart and the brick wall turns into a brick doorway. Men and women in colorful robes are walking around this old fashion looking main street that has shops on either side of it. Everyone has joy and happiness on their faces, which instantly makes me smile as well. Children who seem to be younger than us are running around, while they are laughing and shrieking. Teenager that are older than my brother and I are chatting away with their friends.

“Welcome to Diagon Alley!” Hagrid exclaims to us, and all I can think is ‘wow!’ We walk through the doorway and start to walk through the crowd. I whip my head around left and right, while watching everyone bustle around myself. Harry takes ahold of my right hand so I won’t get lost in the crowd.

“Um, Hagrid? How are we going to pay for these supplies?” my brother asks him, while I nod my head in agreement with his question. Hagrid answers his question by telling him about a wizarding bank called Gringotts, and I drown them out as I focus on the giant white bank building ahead of us. Catching a small piece of information from Hagrid’s talking, I learn that Gringotts is being run goblins and that catches my interest.

Goblins are working on high wooden tables on both sides of the room when we first enter the huge building. This is the first time today that my brother and I have been able to walk into a building without anyone stopping us. The goblins are creepy, but I will not judge someone based on their appearance and more so on their personality. Every goblin is really short with long pointy ears and sharp teeth. Every time one of the goblins look up from their work at me, I give them a soft smile and wave at them. Sometimes they will wave back with a straight face, while other times they will simply nod their head and turn back to their work.

Hagrid, Harry, and I walk to the big desk that is at the end of the other two tables. An older looking goblin with white hair is writing on paper, when we stand in front of him. He glances up at us, before he slowly places his quill down on his desk and give us his full attention.

When we arrive at the vault that is in has been in the Potter family, a short goblin takes the key from Hagrid and unlocks the big metal door. The door slowly opens to reveal a huge empty room, or at least it looks empty before I actually enter the vault. In the middle of the giant room is a table with a ton of gold on it. My jaw drops as I continue to stare at all the gold coins, while Hagrid takes out a leather pouch and starts putting in different colored coins along with some gold coins into it. Glancing over at my twin, I notice that he looks shocked as well.

“Did you both think that your parents would leave you with nothing?” Hagrid asks us with amusement in his voice. Squealing in my head, I tackle my brother with a bear hug that keeps him from breathing for a few seconds. We finally have money, Harry! We are finally rich! Isn’t this exciting, Harry?! He nods his head, while he starts laughing with a giant smile on his face.

Once we have some money for school supplies, we end up at another vault that Hagrid is keeping the contents under hush hush. The goblin holds out his hand and firmly tells us to stand back, while he walks toward the vault door. Harry, Hagrid, and I take a couple of steps back as we watch the goblin use one of his long, sharp fingernails to open the tightly secured room. He drags his nail down one of the crevasse in the door, and I hear bolts unlocking.

Once the door is open, Hagrid walks over and grabs the small pouch that is waiting inside the vault. It easily fits into the palm of his hand. As he is putting the pouch inside one of his many jacket pockets, he turns around and looks at us like he just remembered we are there with him. Looking at us with a sheepish grin, he continues to put the object in his pocket, while at the same time address us about this secret vault.

“I would appreciate this if you didn’t tell anyone about what you saw today,” he tells us, while we both nod our heads in agreement. Smiling at us, we head out of the bank and into Diagon Alley.

After an hour of getting our school supplies, all we have left to get is our wands and a pet. Hagrid lets us go into Ollivander’s Wand shop by ourselves, while he goes to do something that for some reason won’t tell us about. We enter the dark shop and set our supplies down onto the chairs next to the door. This place looks scary, Harry! My brother agrees with me, but walks toward the desk.

“Hello?” he calls out into the cluttered shop, but no one replies and he decides to try again, “Hello?” he asks, but this time the hello was louder than the first time. An older gentleman on a ladder rolls over to us with a loud bang. He looks at us for a few seconds before he gives us a smile.

“I was wondering when I would be seen you, Mr. and Ms. Potter,” the elderly man says and climbs down his ladder. When he is on the ground, I realize that he has frizzy grayish-whitish hair, and is wearing a dark brown suit. He doesn’t look as scary as he did before, but he still looks relatively creepy. How does he know our names, Harry? He shakes his head in reply and continues to watch the elderly man.

“Who wants to go first?” the man asks us, and we look at each other.

“Ladies first,” my twin says to us, and I glare at him slightly before stepping forward. The man comes forward and starts to measure my dominant hand, which is my right arm. Before long, the older looking man walks away to look at the various shelves packed with long thin boxes. A light tug makes me look down at my right arm to realize that the tape measure is still measuring my arm, but the catch is that no one is holding it anymore. My gold eyes widen with amazement as I just watch the inanimate jump zip around my body in thin air. Unfortunately, my little magic show comes to an end when the man snaps his fingers making the measuring tape fall to the ground.

“Here, try this one,” the man says to me as he gingerly places a wooden stick into my hands. Shrugging my shoulders, I wave the stick around only for a chair to fly through the air before smashing against a wall.

“No, no, defiantly not,” the man, who I am assuming now is Mr. Ollivander, abruptly takes the stick away from my hands. He puts it back into its proper box before taking out another stick. This continues for another minute before something happens.

“Here,” the man says and gives me a dark, almost black, stick this time. Unlike the others, when my right hand grasps the handle a feeling of warmth hugs my body. Waving my hand around, a warm light envelope my body and a wind rushes through me.

“Blackthorn wood with phoenix feather core. This wand has hard flexibility and it is eleven and three-fourths inches long. The blackthorn wands are suited for warriors and must go through life threating situations to become truly bonded. The phoenix feather is the most powerful core and pickiest. You have a wonderful wand, and I remember making this wand. Use it well,” he says and then looks at my brother, while I nod my head in acknowledgment to the words he said.

Mr. Ollivander measures Harry’s dominant hand as well, and the process starts all over. Fortunately, Harry only goes through a few before finding his rightful wand.

“Curious, very curious,” the older man says more to himself than to us, but my big brother still asks him what is curious, “The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter. I remember every wand I have ever sold and curiously the phoenix that’s feather is in your wand had a brother. One other brother that so happens to reside in the wand that gave you that scar.” He says while briefly pointing at my brother’s lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

A chill crawl up my spine, but thankfully a knock on the shop’s window makes us look over to find Hagrid holding two cages. One cage holds a snowy white owl that looks picture worthy, but that isn’t what captures my attention. The animal in the other cage takes my breath away, and I rush out of the shop to the cage. Inside the cage is a beautiful glossy black raven that is as large as a beach ball.

“Happy birthday!” Mr. Hagrid says cheerfully, and I jump up ‘n down to express my excitement. Quickly, I give him the best hug I can give when my arms can’t even pass his stomach, because he is so gigantic. I swear he has to be a giant or at least semi-giant. Pulling away from him, and rush toward the raven. Looking at him through the bars, I slowly put two fingers in the cage and the raven automatically leans into my touch. Smiling brightly, I start to pet him absent mindedly, while I think about a name for my new friend. By this time, Harry is already out of the shop and looking at his owl. I think I will name him…Nightshade.

“That is a great name, sister,” Harry says to me, and he decides to name is owl, Hedwig, which is a cute name.

“Hagrid, Mr. Ollivander said that the brother of my wand gave me this scar. Who was it?” Harry asks Hagrid, while we are eating some soup at the Leaky Cauldron. Hagrid instantly stops eating before looking at us and sets his spoon down.

“I don’t think I am the person to be telling you two this, but he was the darkest wizard in history,” he says with a sigh. I tune out for a second, while a loud scream rings inside my head. Why does this woman’s scream sound so familiar? Um, Harry? Did you hear a woman scream? He looks over at me and shakes his head, but I catch a glimpse of concern in his green eyes before looking back at Hagrid. Shaking my head, I focus on what the semi-giant says as he replays what happened that day our parents died.

“You have to remember that it was dark times. He walked into the house and he killed James, as your mother ran up the stairs to protect you two. Your mother stood in-between him and you, so he decided to kill her,” a chill goes up my spine, but I continue to listen, “Nobody stood up to him. Nobody, but two. You two.”

“How?”

“Nobody knows, but something happened that night that made you two stop him,” Hagrid finishes his story, and I look over at my older brother, while he looks over at me too. He leans over and hugs me, while I try to not cry or shake from fear. My brother and I were close to dying before we could even fully live.

I’m not so sure, I want to be in this wizarding world…


	5. A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing

A shaking feeling makes me slowly crawl back to reality. Blinking my eyes open, I look to my left to see my twin looking down at me with a huge smile on his face. Confusion clouds my brain until I realize what day it is. Today is the day that we are going to Hogwarts. Jumping in excitement, I momentarily forget about our horrible family and I dance around the room. Since we got back from Diagon Alley, our aunt and uncle gave us Dudley’s other room that usually holds the toys that he broke. My twin brother watches on with amusement as I continue to dance around the room. Grabbing his arms, we both start to just jump around, because we are leaving behind this horrible life and going to learn magic in a magical world. Come on, that is practically a fairytale or book right there.

“Come on, sister,” Harry says to me, and we quickly grab our trunks from underneath the beds. Before leaving the room, Harry grabs his owl while I gently grab the cage that holds Nightshade. I hope that they allow me to bring my bird to this place, because as I was rereading the letter last night, I noticed that it only said, ‘you may only bring an: owl, a cat, or a toad.’ Nightshade is none of those things, but I hope they may allow this one little creature, because I have already fallen in love with my pet raven.

Surprisingly, our uncle is really happy to give us a ride to the train station at King’s cross. I mean, after we came back from Diagon Alley everyone in this family has been ignoring us like we don’t exist. We barely ate breakfast before Uncle Vernon practically drags us out of the house and into the blue van.

Grabbing our things, we watch as our uncle drive away leaving us in front of King’s Crossing without so much as an idea on where to go inside the pretty large train station. Sighing, we walk into the station and grab two carts to rest our stuff on. Walking around, we start to look for Platform 9 ¾, but after spending a few minutes of people pushing past us, we decide to ask an adult that works here.

“Excuse me,” Harry stops in front of a man in a uniform that looks like he works here, “Do you know where the platform 9 ¾ is?” The man looks irritated that my brother has asked him that question, and I tilt my head to the right slightly as I watch this transaction.

“9 ¾?” the man says while leaning closer to my brother so he can hear him above everyone else. My brother nods his head, and the man lets out an aggravated sigh, “Think you are funny, don’t you?” he walks away while muttering 9 ¾ underneath his breath.

Harry looks at me, but I simply shake my head and look around at everyone else. Most of the people rushing around here are men and women in business suits with cellphones at their ears. Before I look back at my brother, my eyes land on a small family heading onto the train. A nice-looking mother and father with a little girl and boy. The mother is smiling while holding the little girl’s hand as they walk towards the train. The boy is on the father’s shoulders while laughing joyfully. My heart clinches inside my chest as I continue to watch the happy family. I wish my parents are still alive. Secretly, that wish has been inside my soul since I could remember. A gentle hand grasps my arm, and I look away to see my brother looking at me with concern. He looks over at what I was watching and looks back at me with sadness in his eyes. Pulling me into a tight hug, I take in his comfort as he rubs my back gently.

“This way to platform 9 ¾,” a woman’s voice makes us pull away from each other, and look towards the source of the voice. A plump woman with five kids, all six of them have bright ginger hair, walks through the crowd of people, “So many muggles today.” We look at each other as we realize that she said the same word that Hagrid said when he first got us. Speeding after them with our carts, we watch from a little way away from them as they stop in front of a column between 9 and 10.

One of the boys is gone when I look at the family, and I start to look around to see if I can see the oldest boy anywhere. Unfortunately, I don’t see any other gingers beside the family in front of me, so I just shake my head and think I probably just miscounted.

“Okay, Fred, you’re next,” the woman says to one of the twin boys, but they look at her with a slight offended look on their faces.

“He’s not Fred, I am!” the boy on the right says to the woman, while the other one shakes his head while saying “Really, you call yourself our mother.”

The woman looks like she internally smacks herself upside the head. “Sorry, George,” she says to the twin that she thought was Fred.

He aims his cart at the brick column before looking back at the plump woman, “I’m only joking. I am Fred.” He dashes through the wall with the other twin running close behind him, while their mom looks like she is used to this kind of thing every day.

Harry and I look at each other before looking back at the brick wall. How in the hell did they do that?!? Without even pushing my thoughts into my brother’s head, he shakes his head at me before pushing his trolley over to the ginger family.

“Excuse me!” Harry says to them, and the youngest son stops from running into the wall to look at us, while the nice woman walks over to us. She smiles at us, and my brother looks like he is shy to ask her how to get to the platform, “H-How d-do do you…”

“How to get to the platform?” the woman decides to help Harry out. He quickly nods his head, while the woman, who I later learn is named Molly, nods her head to the youngest boy, “Don’t worry, it’s Ron’s first time as well.” He gives us a half smile before his mom navigates us to the front of the column, “Now, all you have to do is go straight through the wall. If you are nervous you should run.”

While Molly walks away back to her son and young daughter, my brother looks at me before moving his trolley back a few feet from the wall. He takes a couple of breaths before running at the wall. Instinctively, my eyes snap close and waiting for the bam of my brother hitting the wall. No sounds are made and I slowly open my eyes to see that he is gone. Smiling with excitement, I hurriedly rush through the wall and seeing the 9 ¾ platform makes my mouth drop open.

A large red steam engine train with the gold letters on the front saying ‘Hogwarts Express’. Moving my eyes away from the train, I look around the crowd of people to catch a glimpse of my twin. A hand clamps on my shoulder makes me jump a few inches in the air before turning around to find my brother look a little guilty for scaring me. I’m all right, big brother. This place is amazing, but where do we go? He shrugs his shoulders before strolling in front of me, and I follow close behind him so I don’t lose him in the crowd.

Finding an empty compartment inside the train, we put our luggage on the shelf at the top of the seats. Harry sits next to the window, while I sit next to him. Leaning my head onto his lap, I close my eyes and relax my body.

“Are you all right, sister?” Harry asks me, and I nod my head, while I continue to have my eyes close. Last night, I was so excited to come here today that I couldn’t fall asleep until almost three in the morning. As my brain slowly starts to slip into unconsciousness, I feel the train pull forward and I almost fall off the seat, because of the lurch forward. Harry grabs my shoulders and keeps me on the seat before letting go when the train starts to ride smoothly.

“Excuse me,” a boy’s voice fills the compartment, and I open my eyes to see the youngest ginger boy standing in the doorway of our compartment, “Do you mind, I mean, everywhere else is full?”

I nod my head, while Harry invites the boy into our compartment. The boy seems friendly enough, but he also seems to be quite shy. Giving him a sweet smile, I close my eyes again and just listen to their conversation.

“My name is Ron, by the way. Ron Weasley,” the ginger boy says to us, and I can feel my brother move forward to probably shake the boy’s hand.

“Harry, Harry Potter,” my brother replies, and his left-hand lays on my head, “This is my sister, Anastasia Potter.” I turn my head to see the boy look at us with wide green eyes. His mouth drops open, and I hide a laugh behind a cough. Sighing a little bit, I sit up when I realize that I will not be getting any sleep.

“So, it’s true! I mean, do you really have the-the?” Ron starts to ask, but can’t finish the sentence. I give him a quizzical look, as I wonder what he is asking. Looking over at my brother, he also seems to be puzzled and asks the boy what he is asking. Ron looks uncertain if he should ask, but he lightly leans forward and says, “the scar.”

“Oh!” my brother says when he realizes what Ron is asking. With a smile on his face, he moves his bangs away to show the lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

“Wicked!” the ginger boy says with excitement in his voice before looking at me. I shake my head to indicate that I don’t have any scars.

Right as I shake my head, a nice woman with a trolley full of candy stops in front of the compartment. She asks us if we would like anything, and Ron says no while taking out a gross looking sandwich that his mom has made for him. He doesn’t seem to like the idea of eating it as well. Looking over at Harry, I nudge him in the shoulder before lightly nodding my head towards the trolley. Without having to tell him my idea, his face lights up with a smile and nods at me before looking at the woman, who has been patiently waiting this whole time.

“We’ll take the lot,” Harry says to her as he pulls out a handful of gold coins.

“Woah,” is all Ron says when he sees the gold coins. Smiling at his amazement, I give the woman a smile as well, as she takes the coins from my brother.

The train passes by trees, while my brother and Ron are digging into the candy. Looking towards the source of a squeaking noise, I notice that Ron has a brown rat on his lap. Somehow, the rat got a candy box stuck on its head, and nobody seems to have noticed but me.

“Berty Bott’s Every Flavored Beans?” my brother asks as he opens a box full of what looks like jelly beans.

“They mean every flavor. There is chocolate and peppermint,” he starts to say before taking a bite of a gummy worm. My brother takes a bean into his mouth before Ron says, “There is also spinach, liver, and trout.” Harry gets a gross out face as he takes out the bean that was originally in his mouth.

Next my brother decides to try a different candy, and he looks at the label of the box before looking up at the ginger boy sitting next to him. “These aren’t real chocolate frogs, are they?”

“It’s just a spell. Besides the cards that come with them that matter. Each pack has a card with a famous witch or wizard on them. I have about five-hundred myself,” Ron says with pride in his voice as my brother opens the box. A chocolate frog croaks before hoping onto the window. Unfortunately, the frog jumps out the window before anyone can do anything.

“I got Dumbledore!” Harry says, while looking down at the card he got. Ron talks about how he has about six of them, but my brother gives out a short breath before saying that Dumbledore is gone.

“You don’t expect him to be hanging around all day,” Ron says without missing a beat before looking down at the rat in his lap that got the candy box off himself a while ago, “This is Scabbers, by the way. Pathetic, isn’t he?”

“Just a little bit,” my brother says with some hesitation in his voice.

“Fred gave me a spell to turn him yellow, want to see?” he asks us, and I nod my head enthusiastically, while my brother says yeah. The ginger boy takes out his wand and clears his throat before casting the spell. Unfortunately, before he can start performing the spell a girl stops in the doorway. She looks around the compartment before sighing and turning to us.

“Have you seen a toad? A boy named Neville has lost one,” she asks us, as I look up and notice that she has long curly light brown hair. She is also wearing the school uniform already.

“No,” Ron says to the girl. She notices that his wand is out and looks like he is about to perform a spell.

“Oh! You are going to do some magic? Well, let’s see it then,” she says with a little bit of matter-of-fact tone in her voice. Ron clears his throat and says the spell at Scabbers. All the spell did though was blast off a candy box from the rat’s head. When did he get another box on his head?

“Are you sure that, that was a real spell? I mean, I have done the simple spells myself, and they have all worked for me,” she says as she walks into the room, before sitting next to me. She takes out her wand and aims it at my brother’s face, “For example, Oculus Reparo!” The crack in the lens of my brother’s glasses repairs itself, and my brother takes them off to look at them before looking at Ron. So far, I am really liking this girl!

“Holy cricket! You’re Harry Potter!” she says as Harry puts his glasses back on. He looks at her as she continues, “I’m Hermione Granger, and you must be Anastasia Potter.” I nod my head with a friendly smile and wave before she looks over at the ginger boy, who is still eating candy, “And you are?” She has a slight look of disgust when she asks him that question.

“Ron, Ron Weasley,” he tells her with food still in his mouth. Looking back at us two, she informs us that we should put our robes on, because the train will be arriving at Hogwarts soon. Hermione stands up and starts to walk away before looking back at Ron.

“You have dirt on your nose, by the way. Did you know?” she tells him before leaving the compartment altogether. Laughing slightly, I stand up and grab my suitcase down. Taking the black robes out of the suitcase, I look at my brother before heading to the hallway. I’m going to go change, big brother. Without waiting for an answer, I walk down the hall towards the area I hope holds the bathrooms or something.

By nightfall, the train stops at the train station that should take us to Hogwarts. Jumping around with excitement, I grab my brother’s hand and Ron’s hand before rushing out of the train before anyone else.

“All first years follow me! Come on, first years, don’t be shy!” a familiar voice calls out from above the train’s noises. A huge smile glues onto my face as I rush over to the semi-giant named Hagrid.

“Hey, Harry, Anastasia,” Hagrid calls out to us, and I smile before hugging his middle. All the first years follow him as we head down towards the boats that will take us to the wizarding school. I pinch myself in the arm to see if this is truly reality. Even if this wasn’t reality and that this was a dream, I would not want to wake up.

Hagrid tells us that only four people are allowed on one boat. So, my brother and I share our boat with Ron and Hermione. As we float across the giant lake I look up towards the opposite shore to see a huge, beautiful castle. Tugging on my brother’s sleeve, I point up towards the castle and my brother has a look of star struck across his face. Hugging my brother tightly, I nearly cry with joy when I realize that, that castle is Hogwarts. Taking deep breaths, I enjoy the smell of the lake water, and I listen to the excited whispers all around me. In my entire life with the Durselys, I didn’t think that I could ever go to a place as amazing as this one. Looking towards Hogwarts, I feel Harry pet my hair while containing his excitement.

The inside of the castle is beautiful with its brick walls and polished staircases. Harry grabs my hand as we walk up the stairs with the other first years following close behind us. At the top of the stairs on the landing stands an elegant woman with a emerald green robe on and a hold pointed black hat.

“Welcome to Hogwarts!” the woman says to us with her hands clasped in front of her and her back straight. I can hear the others file behind us on the stairs and we wait for the woman to continue.

“Now, in a few moments you will walking through these doors and join your classmates, but before you can do that we have to sort you into your houses. There is Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. While you are here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn your house points, but any rule breaking and your house will lose points. When it’s the end of the year, the house with the most points will win the house cup. The ceremony will begin momentarily,” the woman says before leaving all of us there on the steps. Before anyone can do anything, a boy cries out Trevor and pushes past me to grab a toad that is sitting on the landing. This must be Neville that lost the toad earlier.

“So, it’s true! Harry and Anastasia Potter have come to Hogwarts,” a boy with slick back ash blonde hair says while leaning against the railing. Harry squeezes my hand as we both look over at the pale boy. Mummers start going behind us, and I look at the others behind me to find them whispering to each other.

“This is Crabbe and this is Goyle. My name is Malfoy,” he says while walking in front of us, “Draco Malfoy.” Unfortunately, Ron decides that this is the perfect time to chuckle at Malfoy’s name and he looks over at with some degree of anger in his green eyes, “You think my name is funny, don’t you? I don’t even need to ask for your name. Red hair and hand-me-down clothes, must be a Weasley.”

“You will soon find out that some wizarding families are better than other wizarding families,” he says as he looks at Ron before looking back at my brother, “I can help you there,” he holds out his hand for my brother to shake. Well, this boy seems to be quite rude, but maybe he just gives bad first impressions. Maybe, he isn’t that bad. With those thoughts in mind, I move my hand up to shake his, but my brother gently grabs my arm and pushes it away from Malfoy’s hand.

“Thanks, but I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself and for my sister,” he says to Draco. Before Draco can reply to him, a tap on his shoulder makes him look behind to see the woman waving him back into line. Draco looks at my brother again before walking back over to his buddies.

“We are ready for you now. Follow me,” she says before turning towards the doors again. A wave of fear washes through me, and I grab my brother’s hand in which he squeezes mine in a comforting way.

The oak wooden doors are pushed open as the woman walks through them. Behind the double doors is a gigantic dining hall with four long tables down it, and one long table in the very front that is on top of a couple of steps. Each table is filled with people, but I don’t pay attention to any of them. Instead I am looking up at the ceiling to see the night sky like the one outside. We stop in front of the three steps that lead to the table that holds the adults, who must be the professors of this school. The woman stops next to a wooden stool that holds a beat up looking old hat.

“Now, before we begin, Professor Dumbledore has a few words to say,” she says and the elderly man sitting in the very middle stands up before looking at us with a firm, yet gentle look in his eyes.

“First years, please note that the dark forest is strictly forbidden to all students. Our caretaker, Mr. Filch, would also like me to remind you that the third floor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to those that do not wish a most painful death. Thank you,” he says before sitting down in a throne like chair. So, he is the headmaster that Hagrid defended back when we first left the Durselys. I can see why Hagrid likes this man. He seems like a very nice man, and he has the air of a grandfather around him.

“When I call your name, you will come up here and I will place the sorting hat onto your head,” she gives a brief explanation before un-scrolling her list and looks at the first name, “Hermione Granger!”

She slowly walks up to the stool and sits down while I hear Ron mumble something to Harry. My eyes practically pop out of my head when the sorting hat starts speaking after it is placed on her head.

“Gryffindor!” the hats shout and the second table to the left starts cheering as she skips off to them.

“Draco Malfoy!” the next name is called out, and the boy from earlier looks a little nervous as he walks up to the sorting hat. The hat barely sits on his head before shouting Slytherin, which makes the far-left house cheer.

“There hasn’t been any witch or wizard that hasn’t gone bad in Slytherin,” Ron says to us, and I nod my head to show that I understand.

Another girl is called to the stool, but my brother gasping makes me turn my head to look at my brother with worry. He is holding his head, while saying that his scar slightly hurts, but he appears to be looking at someone. Turning my head to where Harry is looking at, I notice a man with slick jet black hair is looking at my brother before turning away to look at Professor Quirrell. Touching my brother’s arm, I look at him with worry in my eyes and he nods his head before focusing back onto the sorting ceremony. Sighing, I also turn my attention back right as the hat shouts Hufflepuff. The table on the far right shouts out cheers as the girl rushes over to them.

“Ronald Weasley!” he looks at us with fear before walking up to the stool. As the hat sits on his head, the hat lets out a short laugh.

“Another Weasley. I know exactly what to do with you…Gryffindor!” the hat says and Ron slumps down in relief as he walks over to the table.

“Harry Potter!” my brother looks at me before slowly walking over to the stool. A wave of silence washes throughout the hall, but at the same time everyone is whispering my brother’s name. I notice that the headmaster is also sitting straighter then he did before.

“Difficult, very difficult. You have a lot of courage and not a bad mind either, but you have a large thirst to prove yourself. Where to put you?” the hat says, and I can faintly hear my brother saying not Slytherin, “Not Slytherin aye. Are you sure? You could be great you know. Slytherin can help you on your way to greatness. No? Then better be…Gryffindor!”

I clap for my brother as he stands up from the stool. He looks over to me before walking to Ron, and I smile to them before focusing on the professor.

“Anastasia Potter!” she shouts, and I slowly walk over to the stool. Glancing at my brother, he gives me an encouraging thumb up before the hat is placed onto my head.

“You are much more difficult than your twin brother,” the hat starts to say, as I gulp nervously, “Unlike any other, your brain is like a tidal wave of fighting between all of the houses. You appear to be equally combatable for all houses,” a wave of panic strikes through me, but the next thing he says stops the panic and only leaves confusion, “This is very strange. Now, you seem to be only combatable for one house and there is no more fighting. Better be…- “

“Wait!” I call out inside my head. The hat stops from speaking and waits for me to continue, “Mr. Hat, sir, I must be in the same house as my brother! I cannot speak and he is the only one that can speak for me! If I’m not in the same house as him then I’m afraid I can’t speak to anyone!”

“For now, you will only be able to speak to your brother, but the future is unknown. You are only made for one house. Better be…Slytherin!” the hat says and I nearly cry, when I realize that I’m not going to be in the same house as my brother. For pity’s sake, I’m in the same house that every bad witch and wizard comes from. Shaking slightly, I slowly walk past my brother’s table to the table next to it. The people in Slytherin are cheering that they got me, but I feel anything but happy. Sliding into the next available seat, I look down at the empty plate in front of me, and I will the tears to go away before I hear someone call my name.

“Welcome to Slytherin, Potter,” Draco says to me, and I nod at his words before looking back at the sorting ceremony. If my brother could choose his house, why couldn’t the sorting hat put me in the same house as my brother when I asked? Feeling miserable, I continue to watch the other’s get sorted with sad eyes. When the last person is sorted, the headmaster stands up and claps his hands. Food appears in front of us, but I can’t even stand the sight of the food. Looking over at Harry, I catch him looking at me, and he nods his head toward the food. Shaking my head, no, I watch as my big brother nods to the food again, but with a serious expression on his face. Sighing, I grab a little bit of food before slowly eating it.

When the feast is done, I slowly stand up to follow the other Slytherins down into the dungeons. The head boy says pureblood to the entrance door and it opens to show a cold sitting area. Seeing all of this makes me want to cry more, but I hold it in as the head boy tells us that girls are on the right and boys are on the left. Walking into the room that I am sharing with a couple of girls, I walk to the bed that has my suitcase next to it, but I instantly notice that Nightshade is not in the dormitories with my belongings. Quickly looking around, I find a note waiting on my pillow stating that I need to talk to the head of Slytherin tomorrow. A professor Snape signs it, and I want to really cry right about now. First, I was denied being in the same house as my big brother. Second, I cannot speak without my brother being here to hear my thoughts, and now, my best friend has been confiscated before even my first full day here. Maybe this is what people call a wolf in sheep’s clothing? All I know is that when everyone fell asleep for the night, I started to cry and cry with my heart wrenching into my pillow until I cried myself to sleep.


	6. Brother?

The first thing I feel is my head pounding from all the crying that I did last night. My eyes are swollen slightly and hurt when I lightly touch them. Trying to look out the window, I notice that the sun is just starting to rise into the sky. Sighing, I slowly get out of the warm bed and onto the cold cement floor. Looking over at the other girls in the dormitory, I realize that I’m the only one awake at the moment. Quickly grabbing some robes from my suitcase, I walk over to the bathroom and change in there.

Walking into the commons, I sit in front of the fireplace and stare off into the flames as I think about what has happened so far since coming to Hogwarts. Unfortunately, I can’t think too far into the past before I hear a pair of feet descending the stairs toward the commons. Quickly looking behind me, I see the ash blonde hair of the Malfoy boy on the staircase. He has a slight smirk on his face when he sees me, and heads over to me.

“Good morning, Potter,” he says with his smirk still on his pale face. Waving at him, I look back at the now empty fireplace. I must have been down here for a while, because the fire is completely gone.

“You don’t say much, do you? Or are you that upset that you are in Slytherin and not with your precious brother to even talk?” Draco practically spits out, and I look at him quickly before shaking my head no. Giving him a wait sign, I quickly grab the notebook and quill that I brought down with me. Writing him a quick note, I flip over the notebook so the boy can read what I wrote, “‘I may be sad that I’m not in the same house as my brother that is not the reason behind my inability to speak. The reason is as simple as the fact that I cannot speak. I haven’t been able to speak since I can remember.’ I’ve never heard of a witch or wizard that cannot speak.”

With that last sentence, he stands up and walks toward the opening of the Slytherin house. Draco looks behind to me and holds out his hand for me to take. Smiling slightly, I jump up with my notebook and rush over to him. With our hands together, we head out of the dungeons and up towards the dining hall.

Sitting down at the Slytherin table, I look over at Draco before writing down where the other two boys were at. He explains that they are probably still sleeping, and I look up at the dining hall door, when I hear it open. My brother and Ron walk into the room, and a smile creeps its way up to my face. Giving Draco a note that said ‘I’ll be right back’, I run over to my brother and tackle him in a bear hug. Usually my brother would instantly hug me back while chuckling, but this time he doesn’t hug me back. Harry simple pulls away and walks away with Ron. Hurting slightly, I rush forward and grab his arm until he looks at me. Big brother? Are you all right? Why didn’t you hug me back? He sighs before looking at me in the eyes with slight distrust in his.

“Go away, Anastasia. I don’t want to talk to a person in Slytherin,” he says and turns around. He walks away to the Gryffindor table, and I look at his retreating form with tears pooling into my eyes. Looking back at Draco, I notice that he is getting up from the table with concern in his eyes. Instead of going to him, I turn around and rush out of the hall. I don’t want to be around anyone right now.

Unfortunately, I really didn’t have any idea on where to run to, so I decided to go back to the girl’s dormitory. On my way down into the dungeons, tears are spilling down my face and making it hard to see where I am going. Sadly, I end up running into someone, which makes me fall back into the stairs behind me.

“Watch where you are going, silly girl,” a stern, but deep voice drawls out. Wiping my eyes furiously, I can finally make out a tall man with black robes standing in front of me. Wiping my eyes some more, I realize that this young man, who appears to be in his twenties, is the same man that was looking at Harry last night. Bowing my head in sorrow, I slowly stand up and write ‘sorry’ on the wall with my finger.

“You are Potter’s sister, are you not?” he asks, and I nod my head. My tears spill out of my eyes when he says my brother’s name, well, last name. I thought that after everything that happened with us at our relatives that Harry would always by my side no matter what. Or at the very least, stick by my side because we are twins. Trying to not cry further, I look back the teacher and about to write another question to him, but my name being called makes me turn around with hope that maybe it’s my brother.

“Hello, professor,” Draco says to the teacher in front of me. He quickly turns to me and envelopes me in a hug, “Don’t listen to that Potter. He is an idiot if he actually stops talking to his twin because she is in Slytherin.”

“What are you talking about, Mr. Malfoy?” the teacher asks Draco, while I silent start to weeping into his neck. Draco explains what just happened, while I continue to cry and feel self-pity.

“I would expect no less from a Potter,” the teacher says, and I stop crying long enough to write a question on the wall. The question is very simple, but I write slowly so they can follow what I am writing. ‘Who are you, sir?’ That is the question that I write on the wall before looking over at the black-haired teacher.

“If you wish to ask me a question then you should use your voice,” the teacher firmly says to me, but before I can write that I cannot speak, Draco beats me to it.

“She cannot speak, professor.”

“Hmm,” the teacher looks back at me before answering my question, “I am Severus Snape, but Professor Snape to you.” After saying his name, he steps around us and walks up the stairs. After his footsteps disappear, I look over at the blonde boy before writing down a very important and much needed question.

“Yes,” Draco says, and I give him a hug full of joy. Crying out in joy, I barely hear him say, “I will be your friend.”

Walking into transfiguration with Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle, we take a seat near the middle of the left-hand side of the classroom. Draco on my right side, and Crabbe on my left, I look up at the chalkboard to notice that there are instructions on it. Getting out a piece of paper and quill, I start to follow the instruction while at the same time helping Draco and Crabbe with their papers.

Soon after we start working, people from Gryffindor and Slytherin start piling into the other seats. Even though my brother doesn’t want to talk to me, I still look up occasionally to see if he is here. Unfortunately, by the time the bell rings to signal class starting, my brother and Ron are still not in class. Sighing, I look down at my paper while trying to not cry. Did he not come to class because of me? I feel a hand gently rub my back in a reassuring gesture. I don’t even need to look at the hand to know that it is Draco. Without having to wait long, I hear the large double doors crash open and my brother with his friend crashing through them.

“Good, Professor McGonagall isn’t here. Can you imagine what her face would look like if she saw that we were late?” I hear Ron’s voice ask my brother. Trying to catch my brother’s attention, I point at the tabby cat on the desk. My brother looks at me in curiosity, but then that curiosity turns to slight anger before turning away from me. Why does my brother hate me so much? Before I can cry even more, I watch as the cat jumps off the desk and turns into Professor McGonagall in thin air. My brother and Ron look at the teacher with their jaws dropped in surprise.

“That was bloody brilliant!” Ron says with awe in his face. The teacher gives him a slight amused look before getting back to the problem at hand.

“Thank you for that assessment, Mr. Weasley. Now, if I turn both you and Mr. Potter into pocket watches. Then one of you might be on time,” she says while having a strict façade.

“Sorry, professor. We got lost,” Harry tries to explain to her, but she looks like she isn’t going to have any excuses.

“Then perhaps a map? I assume, you don’t need one to find your seats,” she says before walking to her desk. Harry looks back over at me, but instead of anger in his eyes, all I see is sadness before that disappears. Looking away from me, Ron and Harry walk over to their seats and Transfiguration finally starts for real.

Next, Draco and I walk down into the dungeons for our potions class. The potions class is in a dingy and dark room, but for some reason it has a charm that appeals to me. Before I sit down at a desk with Draco, I notice that Hermione Granger has entered the room before sitting down in the third row. Quickly writing down a ‘I’ll be right back’, I walk over to Granger and sit next to her. She looks at me with interest, and I give her a smile while waving.

“Hello, Hermione. I was wondering if you would like to be my friend. That is if you don’t mind that I am in Slytherin,” I write down in my notebook before showing it to her. She smiles and moves her curly mousy brown hair out of the way.

“Sure, I’ll be your friend. I don’t mind that you are in Slytherin,” she says, and before I realize it I wrap her in a bear hug. Smiling widely, I quickly give her a wave of good-bye before walking back to my seat next to Draco. Excitedly, I write down that I have a new friend and show it to Draco.

“That’s wonderful, but I don’t like how she is a Gryffindor,” he says, but still smiles at me. Before I can talk to him further, people start piling into the room and I sigh. I guess I’m going to have to talk to him after Potions class is over. I watch as my brother and Ron enter the room before taking a seat next to Hermione. The Potions door is thrown open, and Professor Snape enters the room with his black cloak bellows around him.

“There will be no foolish wand waving in my class,” is the first thing that Snape drawls out before looking at all of us. Sitting at his desk, Professor Snape starts taking roll of who is here. Thankfully, Draco answers for me when he calls my name.

“Harry Potter, our new celebrity,” he says when he reaches my brother’s name. He starts asking my brother question after question. Only two people raised their hands during this interrogation of my big brother. Hermione Granger and myself. Unfortunately, it seems that this teacher has it out for my brother. Looking over at Draco, I see that he is wearing a smirk on his face.

The bell rings to signify that class is over, and I remember the letter on my bed about Nightshade. Waiting for everyone to leave, I slowly walk over to Snape’s desk. While he is grading some papers, I start to write down my question.

“Sir, why was my bird not returned to me?” I write down and wait for him to look up at me before showing him my question. He sets down his quill before addressing my question.

“Did you read the school list?” he asks me, and I nod my head, “Did it say you can bring a raven as a pet?” shaking my head no, I start to write down my response while he continues what he is saying, “Then the bird is not allowed. Your bird will be returned to your home.”

“Please, Professor. That bird is the only present I have ever gotten. Mr. Hagrid gave it to me, so, I thought that it would be all right if I brought it. Please don’t send Nightshade back to the Dursleys. They will kill him by neglecting him,” I write down and show him with tears in my eyes.

“Then you thought wrong, silly girl. Rules are rules,” he says before going back to grading papers. Sorrowfully, I bow my head down and grab my things before walking out of the classroom.

I cannot let them take Nightshade back to my relatives. I need to keep him safe, and my relatives are not safe. Looking over and seeing Draco, I walk up to him before writing down one question.

“Will you help me keep my Nightshade?”


	7. Rescuing A Dear Friend

“I don’t know about this, Anastasia,” Draco says after reading my plan. Raising an eyebrow, I quickly write down ‘this is the only way’ on paper, I hand it over to him. Sighing, he nods his head at my statement, but doesn’t look pleased with my plan. Smiling, I give him a quick hug before standing up from the Slytherin table. Everyone is still eating their dinner, and don’t notice me standing. With a hint of nervousness, I walk over to the Gryffindor table and walk up to the one other friend that I have. Unfortunately, Hermione is sitting next to my brother and his friend. Tapping on her shoulder, she turns around and smiles at me. Thank the lord, she seems to still wants be my friend.

“Do you know what the spell is to unlock doors and such?” I write down in my notepad before showing my friend the question. I know that she is the smartest person in this school, and I’m amazed that she is Gryffindor when she seems like a Ravenclaw to me. Looking at me with a question in her eyes, she nods her head and writes down the spell on the same piece of paper. Thanking her with a hug, I turn away but I stop in front of my brother. He looks at me and I swear that for a split second there was a smile in his eyes. Unfortunately, before I can fully see the smile, his eyes turn sad and then blank before looking away from me. Harry starts to talk to Ron, and Ron looks at me with distrust before talking back to Harry. Sadness crashes down into my small form, and I slowly walk back to the Slytherin table.

Sitting down next to Draco again, he hugs me slightly, and I realize that he must have been watching the whole exchange. Smiling slightly, I give him a reassuring pat on the back before showing him the spell. Sighing, he nods his head and says that the plan with start tomorrow. Hugging him again, I quickly eat my dinner and head to bed early, so I am ready for the escape act.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t do the escape plan until Friday night. This setback is going to really make this a very close call, because from a little bit of snooping I learned that Nightshade will be sent back Saturday morning. Considering this key information, if this plan doesn’t work then I will not get a second chance at getting Nightshade.

Draco and I sit in the Slytherin commons ‘studying’, while the other Slytherins start heading towards their beds for a good night’s rest. Having the other Slytherins see us ‘studying’ is part of our alibi, because if Professor Snape immediately comes to us if this plan works, which it will and he will, then we can say that we were studying and people would agree with us. Once the last person heads off to bed, we wait an hour before Draco quietly heads up to the boys’ dormitory and get his two friends.

Closing our books, I grab my cloak that I have been sitting on this whole time. Right as I strap it onto my back, Draco comes down the steps with Crabbe and Goyle in toe. Smiling at them, I open the portrait doorway, and quietly head toward Professor Snape’s office.

The corridor is cold because of it being in the dungeons and because it is night. Standing a few feet away from the Professor’s office, we look down and notice light underneath the door. Already prepared for this scenario, I look at Draco and he gets the hint with a nod of his head. He pulls Crabbe and Goyle down the hall to tell them what to do while I continue to watch the door.

A few seconds later, I feel Draco tug on my arm slightly, and we creep down the other hallway and turn a corner. Peeking around the corner, Draco nods his head and his friends look at each other before starting an argument with each other. Within minutes the argument escalated to the point that they are yelling at each other, and I can guarantee that everyone from here to the Slytherin dorms can hear these two argue. Instantly, Snape’s door slams open and he storms toward the two boys. Thankfully, Draco and I are too far away to hear the words that Snape is saying to them, because I can see the boys’ face drain of all color before Snape grabs them by their ear and pulls them down the hallway to Slytherin house.

Draco and I rush forward to the door, and like I suspected the door is locked. Pulling out my wand, I silently pray that the spell works before shouting in my head ‘Alohomora’, while flicking my wand in a circular motion before flicking it in a downward movement. Thanking Salazar, the door opening follows the click of the door unlocking. Draco stays in the doorway to keep a look out for Professor Snape.

Honestly, his office is exactly what I expected it to look like. There are potions, and cauldrons around the room. Of course, the entire room is dark and I think fits his personality. Pushing those thoughts aside, I look around the room before laying my eyes on a familiar cage that makes my body swell with happiness. Hurrying over to the cage, I gently lift it up, and I come face to face with Nightshade. Cooing, I put a finger through the bars of the cage and Nightshade caws before leaning into my touch. I shush him, before walking out of the office and locking the door behind me.

Showing Draco my bird, he smiles while congratulating me. Before we can start walking off, loud footsteps are heading towards this corridor, and we look at each other before running down the hallway and head up the stairs that lead out of the dungeons.

Once Draco and I reach the outskirts of the forbidden forest, we finally stop to catch our breaths. Nightshade caws in irritation at the sudden movement, but that is soon drown out by Draco’s laugh. Looking over at him, he is laughing so hard that he must hold his stomach and tears are cascading down his cheeks. He must have seen my confusion, because he tries to explain why he is laughing but is failing majorly.

“I’m s-s-sorry. I-It’s just that,” he stops to laugh a little bit more before finally calming down, “this is really fun. I guess the idea of almost getting caught made me laugh.”

Nodding my head, I set down the cage and kneel next to it. Opening the door, I reach into the cage and Nightshade walks up my arm to make releasing him easier. Kissing his head, I move my arm up, and the raven takes off for the forest. Smiling, but also feeling sad, I wave in his general direction before chucking the cage into the forest. Draco holds my hand, and smiles at me before lightly tugging my arm in the direction of the castle.

Next morning at breakfast, Draco and I are trying to keep our eyes open, because of how late we stayed up last night to rescue Nightshade. Unfortunately, Snape stops us while we are eating and asks us why we are so tired this morning.

“We were up studying last night,” Draco tells him, while all I can think about is to act natural and keep eating my breakfast. I notice that Professor Snape looks at me right after I think that, and a sinking feeling enters my stomach when a thought pops into my head. Maybe, just maybe, Professor Snape can read or at least hear people’s thoughts. Professor Snape answers my thought when he looks at me again with the slightest of nods and leaves us alone when he realizes that we are not going to openly admit that we rescued Nightshade.

“Well, it seems like we are in the clear,” Draco says and goes back to his food. Looking at the teacher table at Snape, I figure out if I should tell Draco about the reading of minds or if I should keep it to myself. Thinking about Professor’s personality that I have witnessed so far, I would assume that he would want me to keep this information to myself. Sighing, I turn back to my breakfast when cawing stops me from bringing the fork to my mouth. Looking up, I see a ton of owls of all different shapes, sizes, and colors, entering the dining hall. Each owl is holding a gift or mail in their talons or beaks.

A eagle owl swoops over to the Slytherin table and drops some mail with a rolled-up newspaper in front of Draco. He instantly starts opening letters, and I tug on his sleeve. Writing down a question, I show him my notebook and he nods his head while going back to his letters. Smiling, I take his newspaper and read the first page.

The main article of the newspaper is a story of someone breaking into Gringotts, which is unheard of because Gringotts is supposed to be a very secure place. Peaking my interest, I continue to read the story to find out that the vault that was broken into is the same vault that Hagrid took the mysterious object from, the day that Harry and I went supply shopping.

Looking up towards my brother, I realize that he is showing Ron the newspaper. He is most likely telling him exactly what I was just thinking. Harry suddenly looks up at me, and sees the newspaper in my hands. He nods his head before turning back to his friends, and I sigh at the idea that he still isn’t talking to me. I show Draco the newspaper article, and write down what happened a few days earlier before the break in.

“That is strange, Ana,” he says after reading my notebook. Raising an eyebrow, I write down what he called me with a question mark, “Well, your name is so long, so I decided to give you a nickname. Do you mind if I call you Ana?” I shake my head no, and give him a giant hug.

After we hug, I turn back to the newspaper, and all I can think of is that this is going to be one hell of a mystery. Hopefully, no one will get hurt at the end of this mystery, and maybe big brother will start talking to me again.


	8. Halloween

Today is Halloween! I am so excited because Halloween is my favorite holiday. I’m curious as to how the wizarding world celebrates All Hallows Eve. Unfortunately, Draco informed me yesterday that we still have classes on Halloween which is a shock going through my head. At first, he didn’t understand why I was so shocked, but after explaining to him that sometimes we get breaks off on holidays in Muggle schools he understood.

So, I slowly get up from my warm and comfortable bed and get ready for a day full of lessons. If I remember correctly, I believe that today Slytherin has charms with Gryffindor, which means that I’ll have a class with my twin brother. He still isn’t talking to me, and I’ve been crying myself to sleep from it for at least a month now. I still don’t understand what I did wrong for my own twin to hate me. Draco keeps trying to reassure me that I did nothing wrong, but I think after a week of trying to convince me to no avail, he realized that I didn’t believe him. I know that I did something wrong, because if it was someone else that did something wrong then why would he not love me anymore. It just doesn’t make sense to me.

Shaking my head, I look up at my reflection in the mirror. My usually bright gold eyes are lifeless and puffy along with red. Anyone can tell that I have been crying, but no one says anything about it. The bright sapphire hair cascading down my head is now duller from the lack of sunlight. I have been favoring staying in doors instead of going out with everyone else. I think that I may have developed depression, and I feel so alone. The only thing that is keeping me from staying curled up in my bed is Draco and Hermione. They are my only friends, and they keep my mind from growing darker than it already is.

Voices and laughter from the girls’ dormitory inform me that everyone is starting to get up for breakfast. Sniffling back the tears that are threatening to come out, I timidly walked out of the bathroom and down the stairs toward the commons where Draco is usually waiting for me.

A familiar ash blonde head is sitting on the couch in front of the fire place. With his back turned towards me, a plan forms in my head and a small smile crosses my pale face. Everyone files out of the room disguise my footsteps as I walk towards the couch. Right as I’m standing behind him, I cover his eyes with my hands while holding back a giggle. Unfortunately, a giggle escapes my lips and Draco starts laughing while holding onto my wrists.

“Let me guess,” Draco says while trying to keep a straight face, “a girl with blue hair and gold eyes is behind me? She is also wishing me a Happy Halloween?”

Uncovering his eyes, I lean my head around his head so he can see me nod. Laughing, he stands up before walking around the couch and pulling me into a hug.

“Happy Halloween to you too,” he says before grabbing my hand and walking us out of the Slytherin commons. The walk from the commons to the dining hall is peaceful and quiet but is soon interrupted when two identical red-headed boys rush towards us while laughing. Realization washes over me when I remember that these boys were the twins from the train station. I think their names are Fred and George Weasley. Sadly, before anyone can do anything the twins run into me, pushing all of us onto the cold ground. Groaning slightly, I feel the weight of two thirteen-year-olds on my small eleven-year-old body.

“Watch where you are going, Weasleys,” Draco spits out and pushes them off me while I try to regain my breath. He gently helps me up, while the twins start to help each other off the ground.

“Sorry, we didn’t see you there,” one of the twins says to me, while they are looking sheepish at me. Draco is slightly glaring at them while making sure that I’m all right. I nod my head at them while giving them a reassuring grin.

“Are you all right, Ana?” Draco asks me, and I nod at him with the same smile. Pulling out my notepad from my pocket, I quickly write out ‘why are you guys running?’ before flipping it around for the twins to see it.

“Oh! We are running away from Filch because we may or may not have set up a prank in his office,” the other twin replies to my question after reading it off the page. Smiling at their antics, I start to write another question on my notepad when we all hear the yelling of a certain man with a cat. The twins look at each other before looking in the direction of the yell with identical smiles on their faces.

“Well, we hate to rush off-,” one twin starts the sentence, but the other twin decides to finish the sentence.

“But we have to get away before Filch finds us,” after the other twin finishes his sentence, the red-headed boys continue down the hall and turning away from the corridor that holds the Slytherin house. Looking back at Draco, he shrugs his shoulders and we go forward to the dining hall.

A few hours later, Draco and I are sitting in Charms class with the rest of the Slytherins and Gryffindors. Professor Flitwick, who is a very short man with white hair and beard, puts a single feather in front of us all. Not really paying attention, I look over at the other side of the room and notice that Hermione is sitting next to Ron, along with Harry sitting right below them. Hermione looks up and waves at me before we all focus on the Professor.

“Now, one of the most basic wizarding skill is levitation, the ability to make objects fly. Does everyone have their feathers? Good, now don’t forget the wrist movement that we have been practicing, the swish and flick. If you all will please repeat after me,” Professor Flitwick says and we all repeat the wrist movement while repeating the words. Happy with our progress, the Professor tells us all to enunciate the words, ‘Wingardium Leviosa’.

Holding up my wand, I say the spell in my head while performing the swish and flick movement. Immediately, the feather laying in front of me starts rising up in the air for a good minute or two before gently floating back down onto the desk.

Looking over at Draco, I notice that his feather hasn’t even moved an inch yet. Giving him an encouraging pat on the back, I look over at Hermione and I notice that she is looking over at Ron. The Weasley is appearing to have trouble with the spell because he is practically hitting the feather with his wand. Having enough of this Hermione holds up her hand and tells Ron to stop.

“Stop, stop, stop. Besides, you are saying it wrong. It is LeviOsa, not LeviosA,” Hermione says matter of factly, and Ron looks at her with an unimpressed look on his face.

“If you are so clever then you do it. Go on,” Ron says and the brunette takes up her wand before confidently saying the spell. Like my own feather, her feather quickly rises up into the air and Ron moves his books before glumly laying his head against it.

“Well done, everyone look at this. Hermione Granger and Anastasia Potter have done it!” Professor Flitwick says with excitement clearly visible in his voice. Before the professor can continue with the lesson, an explosion scares all of us and makes all of us look over at the Gryffindors only to find the boy sitting next to Harry has blown up his feather.

“We are going to need another feather, professor,” my brother says while looking at the burnt feather next to his.

The rest of the class went by without a hitch and I start walking out of the classroom with my two friends, Draco and Hermione. Unfortunately, Draco gets pulled away from us by some other Slytherins which leaves Hermione and me to walk to our next classes. While walking, we end up a few feet behind my brother and his friend, who isn’t very quiet when he is talking.

“LeviOsa, not LeviosA. I swear that girl is a menace. No wonder she has no friends,” Ron says, but Hermione hears every single word that he says. Before I can comfort her, she rushes past Ron and Harry while holding back her tears. Uncharacteristic anger courses through my blood as I quickly write out ‘I’m her friend, and you are both jerks for being so mean to a girl that is simply trying to help you out! I don’t care that you hate me, but don’t go after her!’, I crumble it up and throw it at my brother as I push past them both.

Running in the same direction as my friend, I end up scurrying through the whole castle before ending up at a girls’ bathroom. Walking over to the only closed stall with crying behind the door, I softly knock on the door only for Hermione to yell out ‘go away!’ Sadness replaces the anger that I had earlier, and I sit down on the ground while flipping through my notepad for an empty page.

“Hermione, that red-headed weasel was not right when he said that you have no friends. I am your friend and I think you are a fantastic know-it-all. Being a know-it-all isn’t always a bad thing because you have the best grades and you are always right. You don’t need anyone else help in the area called homework, and I always know who to go to when I have a question. You are a magnificent girl and friend. Hermione, you are one of the only friends that I have and I’m proud to call you my friend,” I write out on the piece of paper before slipping it under the stall door. Not even two minutes later when the door bursts open and Hermione throws her arms around me while she is still crying. The brunette is saying thank you over and over again while tears of joy are replacing her tears of sadness. Smiling, I hug her tightly while tears cascade down my own face.

After spending awhile on the floor, we slowly stand up from the floor while wiping away our remaining tears. As we turn around to head out of the bathroom, we both look down at the floor only to find two very large feet in front of us. Slowly we follow the feet up the body until we land on the towering figure of a giant troll. Looking back down, I realize that the troll is carrying a giant wooden club, and I look back up to find that he has a very dumb look on his face.

Glancing at Hermione, we start screaming at the top of our lungs before rushing into the stalls. Quickly, we get down on the ground right as the troll crashes his club through the stalls above our heads. Screaming again, I hear a voice telling us to move which I did not hesitate to do. We crawled underneath the stalls over that haven’t been hit with the club. Sadly, the troll for some reason had it out for us and destroyed the stalls that we were under.

Before the giant mountain troll, I read about them in one of the books I got in Diagon Alley, Hermione and I start hearing some shouting which draws the troll’s attention away from us.Taking the opportunity, I yank Hermione’s hand forward and we fast crawl over to the sinks that are against the wall.

Looking over at the other side of the room and a slight gasp escapes my lips.There on the other side of the room is my big brother and the red-headed weasel. They are both throwing debris at the troll and calling the troll names. If it was any other circumstance I would be laughing my butt off, but when your life is on the line you are kind of preoccupied.

The troll made a roar slash groan as he turns back toward Hermione and I. He throws his club downwards hitting the sink right next to ours. While Hermione is screaming for help, we both crawl down the line of sinks and the troll destroys another sink before the boys draw his focus again.

I watch as Harry pulls out his wand and rushes toward the troll. He grabs onto the club which makes him fly into the air and land on the troll’s shoulders. Being a not very bright troll, he starts to move frantically and keeps looking around. I guess that is the best he can do to try and get my brother off him. It almost reminds me of a dog chasing its tail. Unfortunately, all of the hectic movements made my big brother accidentally stuff his wand into the troll’s nostrils. Now, not only is the troll moving quickly to try and get my brother off him, he is also sneezing trying to get the wand out of his nose. At this point, I laugh as I watch the troll as if he is a comedy show.

Finally, the troll grasps Harry’s leg and holds my brother upside down. My laughing stops instantly and worry washes through me ten times than before. The troll starts to swing at Harry with his club, and thankfully my big brother has enough common sense to duck each time.

“Do something!” Harry shouts at Ron while ducking again.

“Like what?”

“Anything!” Harry replies, and Ron takes out his wand, but a look of uncertainty as he looks at the scene before him. Our charm lessons from earlier pops into my head and I start smacking Hermione on her arm. She looks at me while I do the swish and flick movement with my hand. Her brown eyes widen in recognition and yell at Ron the wrist movement from the class.

“Wingardium Leviosia!” Ron shouts right as the troll starts to swing again. Thankfully, the spell works and as the troll’s arm swings down, the club stays in the air right above him. The troll looks down at his hand and slowly looks up to see the club falling out of the air. It lands directly on his face which makes him get a concussion. He starts to lose consciousness and lets my brother drop onto the floor. Harry looks up and notices that the troll is starting to fall right on top of him. Quickly doing a crab walk backward, he barely gets away from the troll before the troll lands with a giant thud.

Forgetting about everything that has happened between Harry and me, I rush over and tackle my big brother into a bear hug. I can’t believe what just happened, and that my brother actually came to save me. Instantly, I feel his arms wrap around my waist and hug me just as tightly.

“I don’t hate you, sister. I love you so much that nothing will ever come between us again. I am so, so sorry that I was acting like a jerk to you. Please, forgive me,” Harry whispers into my ear as we continue to hug. Tears of joy cascade down my cheeks and I simply nod my head into his shoulder. I will forgive my big brother, but I will never forget this.

We continue to hug for another minute before we pull apart and look at the troll.

“Is, is it…dead?” Hermione asks us, and I shake my head while I walk over to her, also giving her a hug. I hold onto my brunette friend as I watch Harry slowly kneel down next to the troll’s head. He slowly pulls out his wand and there is a trail of troll snot coming from the nose to the wand.

“Ew! Troll boogies!” Ron says as he scrunches his face in disgust. Laughing at his reaction, I watch as Harry wipes the snot on his pants.

Before anyone can do anything else, we all hear quick footsteps heading toward us. Looking between all of us, I can hear all of us gulp down saliva and look at the door to the bathroom. We don’t have to wait long before Professors McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell to arrive in the girls bathroom. McGonagall gasps in shock as she places her hand over her heart.

“You four, explain yourselves this instant!” she says with a stern voice, but I understand that she is simply just worried about us. Looking down at my shoes, I listen as Harry and Ron try to stammer out an explanation but I look up in shock when I hear Hermione butt in.

“It was my fault, Professor,” the adults also seem surprised by what the smart brunette has said, “You see, I read about them in one of my books and I thought I could handle it. If it wasn't for Harry, Ron, and Anastasia, I would probably be dead.” Wow, that girl can lie with a straight face, and lie so easily. I probably would have started to sweat or even faint from that level of lying.

“That was an extremely foolish thing for you to do. I was expecting something more rational on your part and I’m very disappointed with you, Miss Granger. Five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this serious lack of judgment,” Professor McGonagall says with disappointment clear as day on her face. She turns her attention to us, and we all look down at our feet, “As for you three, I hope you all know how fortunate you are. Not that many first years can take down a fully grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale. Five points will be awarded to each of you for sheer dumb luck.”

A smile appears on all of our faces as we look up at the teacher. She looks around the room one more time before sharply turning around and walking away. I look over at Professor Snape and I realize that I should return to the dungeons. Giving Harry and Hermione one last hug, I walk out of the bathroom with Professor Snape following close behind me.

Once we are a good distance away from the bathroom, Snape turns his attention to me as we walk down the stairs.

“What really happened, Miss Potter?” he drawls out, and at this point, I realize that there is no point in me lying because he can read my mind, or hear my mind. Remembering what happened in the bathroom, I focus all of my left over energy and push those memories to him. Right after I did that, he stops suddenly at the bottom of the stairs, and I end up running into him. Turning around to look at me, I can see a hint of curiosity in his eyes as the rest of his face remains emotionless.

“How did you do that, Miss Potter?” he asks me, and I tilt my head to the side as I wonder what he is talking about. Slowly, understanding what he means I shrug my shoulders before answering his question.

“I just simply pushed my memories onto you, Professor. It is exactly what I do to Harry in order to communicate with him instead of memories it is words,” I say in my mind, and he nods his head while he looks away in thought. A cold breeze makes me pull my cloak tighter around my body as I wait for the adult to let me return to my dorm.

“I’m going to have to tell Dumbledore about this,” Snape says as he turns back to me. The once curious look leaves his eyes abruptly and he looks down at me with a stern look, “Go back to the dormitories, you silly girl, and stay out of any more trouble or you will have detention with me.”

Nodding my head at him, I say a quick good-night in my mind before walking back to the Slytherin girls’ dormitory. Right as I close the door, the smell of a few different perfumes overwhelms my nose, but I push it aside as I grab my pajamas. Going to the bathroom, I take off the destroyed uniform and quickly put on the flannel pajamas. Snuggling into my bed, the last coherent thought that pops into my mind is ‘this has been a very interesting and emotional day’.


	9. Quidditch

Since the Halloween incident, my big brother has been keeping his word about not letting anyone get in-between us again. In fact, he has been constantly by my side and making me laugh whenever he can. He has been around me to the point that Draco only gets to spend time with me when I am in the common room or in the dining hall. I honestly feel bad that I haven’t spent as much time with him as I used to, but I also want to spend time with my big brother. Finally, a week ago I gently inform my brother that I needed to spend time with my two friends and not just him. Surprisingly, he was understanding and allows me time to relax with my other friends. I am so happy about that not only because I can spend time with my friends but I can also get away from Ron.

Ronald Weasley, the little Weasel as I call him, absolutely does not like me at all. He was friendly at first when I met him on the train but ever since I was sorted into Slytherin, he has been acting like I was a bad person. I mean, I understand that a lot of bad people were sorted into Slytherin but that doesn’t mean that we are all bad people. The Weasel has also talked bad about Draco and never apologized to Hermione. Except, even though he hasn’t apologized to her, he treats Hermione like a friend and she has become friends with both my brother and Ron. I’m so happy that one of my friends have a lot more friends than just me but I also worry that she will forget about me. Every time that that worry pops into my head, I simply push it to the back of my mind and focus on the fact that she is happy.

Recently, Harry informs me about a really big discovery that he, Ron, and Hermione have found before Halloween. Apparently on the third floor, which is forbidden to students, is a giant three-headed dog that was standing on a trap door. When he tells me about the dog I instantly worry about the idea of a giant dog being in Hogwarts. I mean, a giant three-headed dog is in a school full of kids and adults sounds like trouble waiting to happen. My curiosity pushes all of those safety notions out of my head and makes me ask him what he thinks is underneath the trap door. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have any clue about it and I don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.

I continue to think about what could be hidden underneath that trap door, and my big brother told me about that discovery a few days ago. A pair of arms hugging me from behind makes a smile grow on my face as I already know who it is. Turning around, I hold Draco in a warm hug as I push the thoughts away that are connected with the dog. My stomach makes a loud noise which makes both of us pull away from the hug; while Draco is chuckling at the noise I blush a crimson red. Taking my hand, he leads us out of the Slytherin’s Commons while still laughing.

“Come on. Let’s get your beast of a stomach some breakfast before it decides to eat someone,” he says which makes me giggle and hide my mouth with my other hand. The rest of the walk is filled with chatter coming from other people, and I silently soak in all of the laughter. I don’t know why, but when I hear laughing or squeals of delight it makes me feel happy and light-hearted.

Sighing one more time, Draco and I enter the dining hall and we went our separate ways. While he goes over to the Slytherin table, I walk over to the Gryffindor table to my friend and brother, who is sitting next to the Weasel. Inwardly rolling my eyes, I run over to Hermione and hug her from behind. I giggle and from underneath my giggles, I hear Hermione laugh. She pats my arms and I hug Harry, who isn’t eating anything for some reason.

“Why aren’t you eating anything, Harry?” I push that question into his head and he looks at me before turning back to the food.

“Today is my first Quidditch game,” he replies and I nod my head in understanding. Making up my mind, I grab his fork and stab some egg with it before holding it up to his mouth. At first, he refuses to eat anything but finally gives in when he realizes that I’m not moving until he did eat. Giving him a smile, I give him his fork back and look over at Hermione, who gives me a high five. Before anyone can talk further, a dark shadow falls onto our little group. Turning around, I see that my head of the house is standing right behind me and is looking at me.

“Ms. Potter, will you explain to me why you are sitting at the Gryffindor table instead of Slytherin?” professor Snape drawls out while looking over at my group. Debating whether or not to talk to him through my mind, I decide to use my quill and paper because I don’t think that he wants everyone to know about his ability to read minds. I mean, if everyone finds out about his ability then people will watch what they think around him and where is the fun in that. Pushing those thoughts into his mind, I pull out my notepad and quickly write out, ‘I was simply wishing my brother luck on his first Quidditch match.’

“Awe, yes. Good luck today, Mr. Potter,” he says and turns to look at my brother. Harry, Hermione, and Ron look at the professor with distrust in their eyes and don’t reply to his words. Snape pauses for a second and then continues to speak, “Except, after proving yourself against a troll, a game of Quidditch should be easy for you then. Even if it is against Slytherin.” With that being said, Professor Snape looks at me before walking down the aisle towards the teacher’s table.

A frown adorns my pale face as I think about what he said to my brother but I decide to ignore it because that was just him being him. I can’t be mad at someone who’s personality is always like that and acts like that to everyone. Now, if he singles out my brother and acts like that then I would get angry. By this point though, I have gotten used to his stern and sometimes rude words but that doesn’t mean they don’t hurt. When I do get hurt by his words, I simply push his words away and focus on something or someone else.

“That explains the blood,” Harry’s words cut through my thinking, and I shake my head before focusing on what he is saying. Looking at him with confusion clouding my eyes, I hear my brunette friend ask him what he means by blood, “Here is what I am thinking: Snape was the one who let the troll out on Halloween as a distraction. He used the distraction to go up to the third floor and try to get past the three-headed dog, but the dog bit him in the leg which is why he is limping.”

“Why would anyone try to get past that dog?” I ask Harry through our minds, and he looks over at me.

“Remember when we were at Gringotts and Hagrid lead us to that one vault. He took something out of it and says it was Hogwarts business,” my big brother says and I nod my head while the memory of that day replays in my head. So, the object that was in the vault is being guarded by the three-headed dog and is what Snape is trying to get. I don’t believe that it is Snape doing all of this though. My head of the house is a rude and stern man but a thief and murderer is something that he will never be. I say murderer because letting a troll into the school could have killed someone. Honestly, I don’t know who would be behind all of this but I don’t think that it is Snape. If I was someone that was trying to steal something from a school, I would try to be unnoticeable and the last person that anyone would expect to be the culprit.

“Harry?” I ask him through the link and he looks at me, “Are you sure that it is Professor Snape? I mean, Professor Snape seems to be the most obvious suspect and the one thing I learned from books, and movies are that the culprit is always the person that is the least expected.”

“Well, who else could it be, sister?” he asks me but my mind draws up a blank. Shrugging my shoulders, I give Harry and Hermione one last hug before getting up and walking away towards Draco.

Right as I sit down on Draco’s right, I hear the hoot of an owl and I glance up to realize that it is my brother’s owl, Hedwig. The snow white owl is carrying a very long parcel that is shaped like a broomstick. She drops it in front of my brother before flying towards the teacher’s table to only land next to Professor McGonagall. It seems that the head of Gryffindor gave their new seeker the newest version of the broomstick, a Nimbus 2000. Smiling at my brother’s happiness, I look down at the table and start to eat my breakfast while talking to Draco, who appears to be frustrated that my brother got a broomstick.

Walking with Draco, we enter the Quidditch stadium and head towards the Slytherin side. Even though my brother is on the Gryffindor team, I decided to stay on the Slytherin side until after the game then I will either congratulate my brother or cheer him up. I flip my green and silver scarf around my shoulder and make sure that Draco has his scarf tightly around his neck.

Not even a minute later, the Slytherin and Gryffindor teams fly out on their broomsticks and zip around the field. My brother flys past me while waving and I smile while waving in return. Lee Jorden, a African-British boy, announces that this is the first Quidditch game of this season. I honestly don’t know who to cheer for; I mean on the one hand, my brother is playing on one team, and on the other hand, I should be cheering for my house team. After debating for a little bit, I decide to just cheer for everyone and be happy with whoever wins.

The teams get into position and Madam Hooch, who is the teacher for flying class, steps out into the center of the field underneath all of the players. She stands next to her broom and a good-size looking chest that is filled with the balls for the game. Before opening the struggling chest, she looks at all of the players, mostly the captain of the Slytherin team, and tells them that she wants a nice clean game. After letting that sentence sink in, she kneels down and opens the chest. Two medium-sized brown balls that are called Bludgers zoom right out of the chest with a weird sound. A small gold ball that is apparently called the Snitch flies out of the chest in a very quick speed, even quicker then the Bludgers. Finally, Madam Hooch pulls out a large red ball that is named the Quaffle and throws it into the air. With the Quaffle in the air, the first official Quidditch game of the season begins.

Unlike everyone else who starts knocking at each other, Harry and the other seeker sit away from the other players and wait until they see the Snitch. Everyone starts grabbing at the Quaffle and the players with the small bats, also known as the beaters, try to hit the Bludgers at the other team. One of the female chasers on the Gryffindor team catches the Quaffle and dodges the Slytherin chasers before tossing it into one of the hoops, earning a point for her team.

“Ten points to Gryffindor!” Lee cheers before giving them ten points. Looking up at my brother, I see him clap his hands while cheering at teammate before a Bludger wheezes past him making him lose his balance for a second. My eyes widen in surprise and realization that this sport is really dangerous. Holding my hands together tightly, I watch in fear and worry for my twin brother who almost got hit by a Bludger. As if sensing my staring, he looks over at me and gives me a reassuring smile as if telling me that he will be alright. Without being reassured about his safety, I nod my head slightly and focus on the game.

Looking at my team, I notice that the captain has the Quaffle and flies toward the Gryffindor hoops in order to score a goal. He dodges the Gryffindor chasers and ends up kicking one of their broomsticks making them fly off while spinning. I frown once I see that because that is a very mean and unnecessary thing to do. That girl could have been hurt or worse by that one action alone. As if karma is getting back at him, when he throws the Quaffle at the Gryffindor hoops, the Gryffindor keeper and captain hits the Quaffle away with his broomstick.

The two girl Gryffindor chasers start playing hot potato with the Quaffle as they dodge the towers and the two Slytherins chasing after them. One of the girls throws it at the other girl who throws it into the Slytherin hoop which earns Gryffindors another point.

”Another ten points to Gryffindor!” Lee happily says while flipping their points over so it reads twenty. This time I slightly cheer by clapping my hands excitedly because after what Flint, the captain for Slytherin, did to that one girl they deserve those ten points. Unfortunately, I am the only Slytherin who cheered for the Gryffindors because everyone else groans that they didn’t receive any points yet.

A Slytherin boy has the Quaffle and throws it but they Gryffindor keeper grabs the ball before it could enter the hoop. He throws it to one of his teammates but Flint looks like he has had enough with the Gryffindor’s meddling. He grabs one of the batons from his teammate and hits one of the Bludgers at the keeper for Gryffindor. Sadly, the Bludger hits the boy squarely in the chest which knocks the male unconscious and he falls of his broom. He lands flatly onto the ground and my mouth drops open. That poor, poor boy! My anger is quickly rising and I want to punch Flint in the face. He gives my brother a cruel smile with his crooked teeth before tossing the baton back to the beater. Without even realizing it, my hands clench into fists and they are shaking slightly. My anger rises even more when I hear my Slytherin peers laughing at the poor male.

Huffing, my anger is quickly reaching its boiling point and all of a sudden Flint stops flying around. He sits very still before his broomstick starts to vibrate. The vibrate quickly turns into violent jerks of movement, and Flint starts to hold onto his broom for dear life. Before anything else can happen, some movement catches my eyes that makes me look away from the jerk. The scene that catches my eye makes all of my anger quickly turn to worry when I see my brother’s broomstick acting exactly like how Flint’s broomstick was previously acting. Looking back at the jerk to see if his broom is still doing the same thing, I quickly notice that his broomstick is completely back to normal and he zips around the field again. Focusing back on my brother, my fear rises to a whole new level when he loses his balance and falls of his broom but thankfully he still has a firm grip on the handle. Tears spring into my eyes when I hear the rest of the Slytherin laugh at my brother, and I look over at my friend Draco to see that he is laughing as well. How can these people be so cruel as to laugh at this serious situation that could potentially really harm my brother or worse.

What feels like an eternity but really a minute or two goes by with Harry’s broom still jerking around before it finally stops. Enthusiastically, I start clapping as my brother swings himself back onto his broom and starts flying off towards the Slytherin seeker who is chasing after the Snitch. Both boys start bumping into each other trying to get the other off his broom, when they notice that the Snitch dives down towards the ground. My brother and the other boy dive down and they start flying towards the ground. They keep glancing at each other seeing who will pull up first. The Slytherin seeker is the first to pull up and away while my brother pulls up just as he is about to hit the ground. Being very close to the ground, he decides that it is the smart thing thing to do which is standing up on his broom. No holding on to his broom, just his feet on the handle of the broomstick. The golden Snitch is right in front of him and he reaches out towards it but it is a little bit to far from his current position. Taking small steps closer to the Snitch, he accidently puts his foot at the very end of the broom making the broom flip forward. My big brother does a barrel roll a few times across the field before he stands up while holding onto his stomach. Big Brother starts making a gagging notion while I start to think that he is going to be sick. Instead of vomiting or something of the like, something pops out of his mouth and into his hands.

A minute goes by before a huge smile appears on his face before he holds up the golden Snitch. My big brother has caught the golden Snitch! He won the game! I start clapping while jumping up and down before Lee Jordan announces that the Gryffindors won the game. Madam Hooch blows her whistle and everyone, minus the Slytherins, start chanting my brother’s name. A small crosses my face before I run out of the bleachers and wait in front of the changing room for my brother to appear.

Twenty minutes later, my brother appears out of the changing room in his school robes. Launching myself, I hug Harry tightly while happy tears spill down my cheeks. He laughs at my actions and hugs me just as tightly. I am so happy and proud of my brother but I am also very grateful that my brother is unharmed.

“Congratulations, big brother! I am so proud of you but I am more relieved that you are alright,” I say through our minds. My happy tears quickly turn into sad tears as I think about how much he could have been hurt or worse. Hearing my crying, my brother hugs me even more tightly as he starts to rub my back.

“It’s okay, sister. I am perfectly fine and I won my first game. Please, don’t cry,” he soothingly says and we stay like that for a few more minutes until my crying turns into hiccups. I pull away from him and smile while wiping away the last of my tears from my face. Thankfully, my tears are gone and I’m just red when Hermione, the Weasel, and Hagrid walk up to us. They all cheer for Harry and he thanks them before Hermione brings something up that is new to me. Apparently, while Harry’s broom was malfunctioning, Hermione saw through her binoculars that Professor Snape was mouthing a spell while looking directly at Harry. If it is true that Harry’s broom was being cursed upon, I still don’t think that Snape could be the one behind this. I agree that this makes Snape very suspicious, but maybe he was simply trying to help my brother.

“Ridiculous! Why would Snape put a curse on Harry’s broom?” Hagrid says while we walk towards Hagrid’s hut. I agree with Hagrid because what could Professor Snape gain from harming my brother.

”I don’t know. Why would he try to get past that three-headed dog on Halloween?” Harry retorts and I sigh before focusing on the grounds of Hogwarts.

“Who told you about Fluffy?” the half-giant asks them as he looks down at them. The Weasel, of course, decides to butt into the conversation by referring to the dog as an it. Hagrid explains that Fluffy belongs to him and that he bought him off an Irish man that he met at the pub once. He lets slip that the dog is guarding something for Dumbledore before realizing that he shouldn’t have said that. Hagrid tells us ‘no more questions’ but my brother insists that Snape is trying to steal it.

“Now, listen to me, all four of you. You are meddling with things that should not be meddled with. What Fluffy is guarding is strictly business between Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel,” Hagrid sternly says while looking down at us. A confused look appears on my face when I registered that new name. Nicholas Flamel actually sounds very familiar like I read his name somewhere. Taking a mental note to look that name back up, I look around to realize that Hagrid as walked away from us and Harry is questioning who Nicholas Flamel is. The Weasel and Hermione both say that they didn’t know who he is and I decide to head to the library to look up the name.

Giving my brother and Hermione a hug, I walk off to the library while avoiding every Slytherin that I come across. Honestly, I don’t think that I can stand being around any Slytherins after how they reacted at the Quidditch game. Unfortunately, as I am walking down a hallway, I notice that Draco is talking to Crabbe and Goyle a few feet away from me. Sighing, I try to pretend that I didn’t notice them but Draco calls out for me. Hurrying my pace, I walk another ten feet before Draco lightly grabs my arm.

“Why are you ignoring me?” he asks me and I pull my arm out of his hand. Quickly scribbling out why I am ignoring him, I hand it to him before running away until I reach the library. Sadness wells up inside me when I think about the fact that my first friend is actually someone that I don’t want to be around at the moment. Pushing those thoughts away, I grab a handful of books and sit down at a table before starting to read.

By dinner time, I still haven’t found anything about a Nicholas Flamel. Arriving at the dining hall, I sit by myself away from the other Slytherins. While quietly eating, I glance up and notice that Draco is with a group of people. He is talking to them and doesn’t even seem to miss me. My cracks fill my heart before I quickly focusing on my food again. Tears make my sight blure but I quickly blink them away before they can fall. I will not allow for this mean people to make me cry.

When I arrived back at the Slytherin’s common, I walk past Draco and go up the stairs to the girl’s dormitory. Changing into pajamas, I lay in bed and think about everything that is going on. My pet raven, Nightshade is gone, my brother was almost hurt, Nicholas Flamel, and I may be down one friend after the Quidditch game. Why is it that I just got my brother back but I also lose a friend that was there for me since coming here? Why is life so cruel?


	10. Suspicious

A month has gone by since the Quidditch match, and it is officially close to Christmas. It also has been an entire month since I spoke, or in my case wrote, to Draco. Since the Quidditch game, Draco stays with a group of Slytherins while I am either with my brother and his friends or I’m by myself. The only time that I can hang out with Hermione is when I am with Harry and Weasel. Every day, I keep glancing at Draco with a sad expression because even though he was being very mean I still think of him as my friend. Occasionally, I will catch Draco looking at me but when he notices that I see him looking at me he turns back to his group. I don’t know if it is me being optimistic but I’m hoping that him glancing at me as well means that he feels the same way. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if I should be the bigger person and talk to him first but I feel like I shouldn’t have to. I did nothing wrong.

Pushing those thoughts out of my mind, I look out one of the windows in the dining hall that is decorated with Christmas ornaments. I will admit that Hogwarts loves to decorate for this holiday more so than the other holidays. Snow is piling up on the grounds of the school and people are walking with their suitcases packed for those that are going home for winter break. Of course, my big brother and I are staying at the school for Christmas and so is the Weasel, unfortunately. Even sadder news is that Hermione is going back to the Muggle world for her winter break. Back in September, Hermione told me that her parents were muggles and worked as dentists.

Speaking of my brunette friend, she just so happens to enter the dining hall with her suitcase in hand. I wave my hand and she smiles at me before walking over to my table. After giving her a hug, we look over at my brother and his friend while they play the wizard version of chess. Unlike the muggles way of playing chess, wizard’s chess has the chess pieces move on their own, the players still have to call out the spot they want the pieces to go to, and the chess pieces come to life. Once they come to life they destroy the other piece that is on the square that they are landing on. So far from the looks of the board, it looks like the Weasel is beating my brother in this round. When Hermione observes that the pieces destroy each other her mouth drops open in shock and disgust.

“That is totally barbaric!” Hermione says while Ron looks smug at the way the game is heading. I nod my head in agreement with her words while I continue to watch the chess pieces.

“That’s wizard’s chess,” the red-head says before looking down and noticing her suitcase, “I see you’ve packed.”

“I see you haven’t.” Hermione replies and I chuckle silently before looking out the window again. Unlike other people, I absolutely love everything that has to do with winter and snow. The perfect temperature for me is in the lower sixties and I always wish for a white Christmas. It looks like I’m getting my wish this year! Oh! Maybe on Christmas Eve I could go out and play in the snow with my brother! That sounds like a wonderful idea and it reminds me of those classic Christmas movies that the Dursleys played around this time of the year.

“-My parents are taking a trip to Romania to visit my brother, Charlie,” weasel’s voice breaks through my happy thoughts and my happiness instantly shrivels up. Rolling my eyes, I start to wonder if I should leave them alone; however, any idea of leaving leaves my brain when I hear Hermione’s words.

“Good! Then you can help Harry look through the library for any information regarding Nicholas Flamel,” she tells him while he looks like the idea of the library is actually disgusting to him. The Weasel whines to my friend that they already checked the library like a hundred times. I swear I’m a nice person but lately, that boy has been grinding my gears. While sighing at the boy’s behavior, I notice that Hermione leaned against the table and whispers to us, “Not in the Restricted section. Happy Christmas!”

After she walks away from us, I decided to head back to the Slytherin commons and hug my brother goodbye before leaving. Walking towards the dungeons, I stop in front of a window and look out towards the Forbidden Forest. The forest is just covered with snow and a peaceful sigh escapes my pale lips. While looking out the window, a thought crosses my mind that I sadly didn’t think about for a while now. Is Nightshade alright? I haven’t seen him since opening the cage that night a few months ago. Honestly, I miss that beautiful guy even though I only had him for a short amount of time. Maybe that should be my Christmas wish for this year.

During all of this thinking, I didn’t hear the slow and unsure footsteps heading in my direction or these same footsteps stopping right next to me. It isn’t until a hand clasps my shoulder do I shake out of my thoughts and turn to see who is it. My eyes first land on the sleek ash blonde hair and then finally settle on his sad-looking gray eyes. Turning towards him, I give Draco my full attention and I notice that he has a suitcase behind him. Another thing that I quickly notice is that he has a hand behind his back while the other hand is resting on said suitcase.

“Hello, Ana,” Draco awkwardly says with an awkward smile. I don’t know what gives me this idea but I have a feeling that this is going to be a very awkward conversation. Taking out my notepad, I quickly write out a hello before standing there for a minute.

“Um, I’m leaving for Christmas and I wanted to see you before I left,” he says while shuffling his feet. I smile a little from the small, yet sweet gesture. He takes the smile as a good sign and with a little bit more confidence he pulls out a small present that is wrapped in Slytherin colors, “Here! I got you this for Christmas and hopefully, you’ll like it!”

A full blown smile appears on my face as I gingerly take the present from him. I know Draco long enough to know that this is his way of apologizing to me. While holding onto the present, I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him tightly. I may not agree with how he acted at the Quidditch game but I’ll ignore all of that for now and forgive him. In this house, I need a friend to keep me company because they other Slytherins just ignore me. I honestly didn’t realize that they were ignoring me until Draco and I were not talking because none of the other Slytherins even tried to talk to me. Releasing my friend from the hug, I think about his present and I realize that I didn’t even get him anything because I didn’t think he would get me something. With hesitation, I slowly write out ‘I didn’t get you anything though’ before showing him the note.

“Don’t worry about it. I wasn’t expecting you to get me anything because of how I was acting,” he chuckles and ruffles my hair slightly. Huffing at him for messing up my hair, my annoyed look quickly changes to a thoughtful expression as I think about what to get him. A good idea pops into my head and I decide to not tell him that I am getting him anything.

“I have to go now but I wish that I had more time to talk with you,” Draco says with a disappointed sigh. My happiness dampens a little bit before I give him another hug. Before he walks off to the train station I write to him to remind him to send me letters during his time away and to have fun with his parents. As I watch him disappear up to the ground floor, I wonder if I will ever meet his parents and I wonder what they are like.

Another thought enters my mind as I continue to head to the commons. Maybe I should get presents for my teachers too. If I do decide to get them some presents too, what will I get them and how can I do it. I don’t want to waste money that was left for myself and Harry. Sighing, I guess that I’m going to have to wait to get them presents for another year when I have enough money.

A few days later, I wake up to a smile plastered onto my face. Today is Christmas!!! Happiness explodes inside me as I throw the blankets off me and rush out of the girls’ dormitory. Rushing recklessly down the stairs, thankfully I didn’t fall, I jump down the last few steps before the wonderful sight of a decorated Christmas tree enters my view. Underneath the tree is quite a few presents that make me gasp in shock. Are these presents for me? Happy tears well up inside my eyes as I slowly walk towards the tree. When my big brother and I lived with the Dursleys, we barely got any presents and when we did get presents they were full of hand-me-downs that didn’t fit us at all.

Taking my five presents, the rest are for the other Slytherins that didn’t go home, I head out of the commons with only my pajamas on and I head over to the Gryffindor commons. I’m not sure how I’m going to get in but maybe the Fat Lady, the portrait that guards the Gryffindor house, is feeling charitable today and will allow me in. As I continue to think about how to get in, I want to hit my forehead with my hand for my stupidity. Harry gave me the password to the commons so I could celebrate Christmas with him. Yeah, there are times where I will have these short spouts of stupidity and afterwards I will hit my head against something. For an example, one time I was eating something with a wrapper and when I was done eating I went to throw away my garbage but I couldn’t find the wrapper. IT WAS IN MY HAND! Literally, it took me a couple of minutes before I realized that it was in my hand. Yeah, that wasn’t and still isn’t my brightest moment.

When I arrive at the portrait, she looks at me and asks for the password. Setting down my presents onto the staircase landing, I grab my notepad and quickly write down the password that Harry gave me a few days ago. Walking closer to her, I hold the pad up for her to read. She reads the password before looking back at me in a suspicious manner. Smiling at her, I grab my presents again before looking at her and wait for her to open up. Grunting, she slowly opens up so that way I can see into the Gryffindors commons.

This is the first time that I have ever seen any other house commons besides Slytherin’s. Gryffindor’s commons are actually bright and cozy compared to the commons that I’m used to. Not surprisingly, the house colors are everywhere in this place and the Christmas tree stands out compared to the rest of the room because it is the only thing that isn’t in the Gryffindor colors. Another thing that is different than my commons is the fact that there are windows here. Considering that the Slytherin commons are in the dungeons, we don’t have any windows there which would explain why we are slightly paler than the other houses.

The Weasel and my big brother are sitting underneath the Christmas tree that is next to the fireplace. I smile at Harry while I set my presents down next to his and give him a loving hug. Even though I dislike Ron with a passion at the moment, I decided to give him a quick hug in the spirit of this holiday. His surprised look actually made the hug worthwhile because he truly wasn’t expecting that.

“Wow, sister! You have five presents!” Harry says while smiling at me and I nod my head in enthusiasm. Looking over at Weasel again, I notice that he has a slightly ugly sweater with a large ‘R’ on the front of it; the sweater almost looks home-made. Turning back to my presents, I grab the nearest present and I look at the name that is on the label.

Surprisingly, the first present is from Fred and George Weasley. My black eyebrows lift up as my eyes widen in shock. I did not expect them to even think about getting me a present. I mean we only talked to each other a few times. The wrapping paper is striped with the colors blood red, gold, and light brown. The present is shaped like a cube or a Chinese takeout box. Ripping the wrapping paper open, the first thing that I notice about the present is that it is in a gold box. Turning the box around to its front, there is a red circle with an old fashion little girl head in the center. In big gold letters, it says, “Shock-o-Choc” and below the girl’s head it says, “Add some SHOCK to your Choc-o-late.” I laugh silently as I realize that I’m not surprised that they would get me something like this. Except, I was pretty sure that if they ever did get me something then it would relate to pranks.

Gently setting their gift down on my left, I move on to the next present. This present isn’t in a box like the others, but it is the biggest present in the lot. Grabbing the present with the royal purple string that is tied around it, I set it on my lap and look at the wrapping paper; this gift is also in Slytherin colors. Pulling the string off and then the paper, I take out a dark green sweater that has a large dark purple A on the front. On the outside of the sweater, the texture is rough and not pleasing to the touch but inside the sweater, it is soft and will definitely keep me warm. Quickly, I pull it over my pajama shirt and hug myself to get warmer quicker. I look back at the label to see who sent it and I realize that it was from Mrs. Weasley. Smiling softly, I make a mental note to write a letter thanking her for the sweater.

Regarding my other presents, I look between Draco’s gift, a black present that almost looks like the galaxy, and the small white box. After deliberating for a minute or two, I decided to just close my eyes and randomly pick the next package.

After picking one, I open my eyes to see which package is in my hand; it is the galaxy looking present. This time I look at the label before tearing the wrapping paper apart. This present is from my other best friend Hermione. Getting truly excited, I quickly get rid of the paper and my mouth drops open in delight. Of course, Hermione being a bookworm like me, her present to me is a muggle book called Pride and Prejudice. Laughing silently, I flip the book over to briefly glance at the pre-read that is on the back cover.

Once I set the book next to my gift from the Weasley twins, I move on to Draco’s gift to me. Ever since he gave me this present a few days ago, I have wanted nothing more than to open it but I kept restraining myself for this day. Slowly opening the rectangle sized box, I pull out a long rectangular jewel case. Holding in my surprised gasp, I calmly open up the black case and this time I couldn’t hold back my gasp. Inside of the case is a necklace that is covered with my birthstone which is also known as rubies. Every other gem is a green looking gem that if held up to the light it will change colors to a purplish-red. These particular gems are the ones that caught my eyes because of the fact that they are so rare and they are one of the birthstones for June; I remember that that is Draco’s birth month. Quickly wrapping my head around the gem, it takes a few moments before I remember the name of this particular gem, Alexandrite. This must have cost a fortune!!!! He shouldn’t have wasted his money on me! Delicately, I take the necklace out of the box and clasp it around my neck. I move my body to face the sunlight pouring in through the window, and I watch with fascination as the Alexandrite gems turn colors. Now, I truly feel awful that I didn’t get him a proper gift. Well, when I make his gift today I’ll make sure that it is the best work that I have ever done. Thinking about it, I'll also make Hermione and the Weasley twins present during that time as well.

Finally, I turn to my last Christmas present and this time I truly have no idea who this is from. I have already gotten presents by people that I know and from looking all around the box there is no name to go with the mystery person. Shrugging my shoulders, I open the white box to find small old looking bracelets that are as long as my thumb. Unlike the usual material that bracelets are made with these identical bracelets are made out of a hard leather. They look worn and have some chard bits to it that makes me question about their past. Shaking off the unpleasant emotions, I gratefully place them on my wrists and they are surprisingly comfortable to wear just like Mrs. Weasley’s sweaters.

Smiling, I turn to look at my brother who was sitting patiently for me to finish opening all of my presents before he started to open his. This might seem unusual but that is the tradition that my brother and I created since we were younger; one of us would open all of their presents and the other would wait until they finished opening all of their presents before the other starts opening theirs. Next year, Harry will open his presents first and I will wait for him to unwrap all of his presents before opening mine.

The first present that Harry opens is not in a box but is wrapped in a bluish-silver wrapping paper with regular string tying the package together. My brother takes the letter off the top of it and opens it. He starts to read the contents of the letter out loud, “Your father left this in my possession before he died. I believe that it is time it was returned to you…use it well.” Harry looks up at us after reading the letter and my eyebrows furrowed together as I think about what the letter said. Ron just shrugs his shoulders while placing the candy box down that he was eating from. Big Brother opens the parcel before taking a cloak like object out of the wrappings. The cloak is dark brown, red, and black that make patterns but I can’t tell what kind of patterns they are. Harry gets up from the chair that he is sitting in and walks a few feet away from us.

“What is it?” weasel asks my brother while Harry continues to look down at the cloak.

“It looks like it is some kind of cloak,” my brother says while dropping it over his shoulders before covering his whole body with the old material. My mouth drops open when my brother’s body disappears after covering it with the cloak.

“Woah! I know what that is! That is an invisibility cloak!” Ron says and my brother finally looks down at his body. He quickly realizes that he is only a floating head now and he quickly says an ‘awesome!’ before spinning around. The Weasel stands up from sitting on the armrest of the couch before walking over to the letter that came with the cloak, “Those are really rare. I wonder who gave it to you.”

“I don’t know. There is no name in the letter and it only says to ‘use it well’,” my brother says while walking next to Ron as he rereads the letter again. My mind continues to question about who could possibly have sent that cloak to my brother when an idea comes to mind that is really brilliant.

“Big Brother, why don’t you use the invisibility cloak to sneak into the Restricted Section of the library?” I say to Harry through the link and he looks up at me with a smile that suggests that I had a smart idea. My brother starts to come up with a plan about sneaking into the library tonight but I can’t stay any longer. I have a long day of making presents for my friends and a thank you letter to Mrs. Weasley. Grabbing my presents, I stand up from the couch and start to head over to the portrait again when my brother stops me.

“Anastasia, I want you to come with me tonight. I don’t want to go there by myself and if we look through the Restricted section together then we can find Nicholas Flamel quicker,” my brother tries to convince me. I turn back to look at him while tilting my head to the right a little bit as I think about what he said. It is true that if I go with him it will be faster than him doing it alone. At the same time if we get caught then we could get in serious trouble. Even if I don’t go with my brother, he will still go by himself and get in trouble all by himself IF he gets caught. If I get caught sneaking around the school at night then Professor Snape will find out and I’ll definitely get detention. My shoulders slouch in defeat when I realize that no matter what I’ll always stick together with my big brother. Looking up at him, I nod my head and I tell him through the mind link to meet me outside of the Slytherin commons. He nods his head and I leave them alone to return to the girls dormitory.

Literally seven hours later, I finally finish the last detail on my last present for my friends. Friends…I didn’t think about this until now but does this mean that the Weasley twins are my friends as well? A smile spreads across my face as I think about the idea of having more friends. Before my mind can drift away, I shake my head before focusing on my present task. Grabbing the presents that I just created, I quickly but neatly wrap them up in newspapers before heading towards the door to leave the girls’ dormitory. Right as I place my hand on the door knob, I stop as I remember to write thank you letters to them. This new task takes me another thirty minutes before I finally leaving the Slytherin house to head towards the Hogwarts owlery, which is in the West Tower.

Hundreds and hundreds of owls are flying through the windows and to their nests. Looking around at all of the owls, I notice my brother’s white owl and maybe she will send my packages. Walking over to Hedwig, I gently start to stroke her beak while listening to all of the fluttering wings. Honestly, this is a nice sounds to be listening to. Right before I could ask her if she could deliver my items, I hear some cawing that does not belong to any owl. Turning towards the sound, I see a large black mass fly into the owlery before landing at an empty nest. Cautiously, I inch towards the dark mass as it caws again. Relief floods through me when I realize what the black mass is; it’s Nightshade. Happiness replaces the relief as I run towards him and I throw my arms around the guy. Tears gather in my eyes when I realize that he is okay and he looks exactly like the last time I saw him. Nightshade snuggles into my neck before I pull away from him.

I continue to pet his head while I think about how much I missed him. I wonder if he is hurt or needs something to eat. When I was hugging him he didn’t seem like he was hurting and he looks healthy. I didn’t even realize that my hand stopped moving until I feel Nightshade nudge my hand. Looking down, I smile at him while I wonder about what he has been doing this whole time. Nightshade nips my hand to let me know that he wants me to step away from him. Confusion takes over me as I step away from the nest and he stretches his wings before flying into the air. He lands onto of my packages that I forgot about until now. The raven grabs the strings that are holding the presents together with his claws before he flies out of the window towards the direction that leads to my friends. I wave at the small speck in the sky before I head off to take a nap before the events of tonight.

Right around midnight, the entire Slytherin commons are covered in a black sheet called night. The only light source is the dying fire in the fireplace and even then there isn’t that much light coming from it. Light crackling from the fire is the only sound inside of the whole Slytherin house. Well, it was the only sound inside Slytherin house until a pair of light footsteps slowly descend down the staircase.

My breathing is really quiet but because of how quiet this room is my breathing sounds like a roar. Thankfully, not that many people stay during the holidays and it is really easy to sneak out of here. Once the portrait door closes behind me, I look around me to see if my brother is here yet or not. After realizing that he isn’t here, I decide to lean against the cold wall and relax. A noise catches my attention before I could fully relax. I instantly go into guard mode because if I get caught out of bed at night then I could end up getting detention or worse. Instead of seeing anything though, I continue to hear some sounds coming closer to me.

Harry takes off the cloak and I sigh in relief when I realize that it was just him making all of those noises. Before I do anything else, I punch him in the arm to let him know that it isn’t alright to scare me. He lightly chuckles before we huddle together underneath the invisibility cloak. Thankfully, I look over at my brother as we are walking and I notice that he has a lantern. I didn’t even think about bring a light source. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it I can honestly say that I haven’t even thought of an outline or plan of what we are about to do.

Slowly but quietly, my big brother and I arrive at the library. Opening the door, I look around the door frame towards the desk that the librarian uses but she isn’t there right now. Just to be safe though, we decide to keep the invisibility cloak on until after we get into the Restricted Section. Slightly shuffling towards the back area of the library, my head starts to move back and forth as I look around the library. Usually I love this place and I go here all the time with Hermione but at night this place is definitely creepy to the max.

Harry is the first one to notice the iron gate that cuts the regular library and the Restricted Section. Anticipation grips onto me as we get closer to the gate. Believe it or not but I’m actually a goody-two-shoes and this will be the first time that I’m breaking the rules. Taking deep breaths, we stop at the door and he reaches out towards the knob but, unfortunately, the door is locked. With my hand slightly shaking, I grab my wand from my wand holster, which I got back in Diagon Alley, and push the cloak away from the wand before raising the wand towards the lock. Steeling myself, I take a deep breath before saying ‘Alohomora’ in my hand while waving my wand in short movements. A large clicking sound is heard as the door slowly opens inward. As we start to head inside the Restricted Section, my wand arm starts to feel abnormal, definitely different than normal. It almost feels heavier and a little bit more weaker. Before I could think further on this situation, my arm starts to feel normal again but it still feels slightly heavier than normal.

Shrugging off the feeling, I look over at my brother and realize that during my inner turmoil Harry got the lantern lite. Once we are in the section, we take off the cloak and I head to a random bookcase with Harry following behind me. He takes one end of the bookcase while I take the other end of the same bookcase. Running my hand across the spines, I stop at a old looking book that is black in color and is the size of a pocket book. Unfortunately, before I could open the book, my brother opens his book and a face comes out of the pages while also screaming its head off. My brother struggles for a few seconds before he could finally close the book and puts it back on the shelf.

“Who’s there?” the gruff voice that belongs to Mr. Filch rings out throughout the quiet library. Harry and I look at each other with fear clearly evident on your faces before I quickly getting into action. While my brother grabs the cloak, I put the book back in its place before rushing towards his side. Even worse news, when Harry yanks the cloak off the table in front of the bookcase, the lantern smashes to the ground because it was originally placed right on top of it. Oh my Salazar! I quickly cover myself with the cloak and my brother follows my lead.

“Who is it?! Show yourself!” Mr. Filch calls out once he enters the library. We slowly walk away from where we were previously and wait to see what happens. He starts to slowly walk down the aisle with his lite lantern hanging high. My brother and I try to keep our breathing quiet while the old looking man inches in front of us. Oddly enough I don’t see his cat with him as he walks past us.

I spoke too soon because as I slowly open the library door, I hear a meow outside of the library and in the hallway that we are now in. Unlike actual people, Mrs. Norris looks directly at us and continues to meow even though we are still underneath the invisibility cloak. After my big brother closed the door behind us, we quickly walk down the hallway in the opposite direction from Mrs. Norris. That cat has been giving me this distinct feeling that she is more than just a cat.

Right as we turn the corner to the left at the end of the hall, I watch as Professor Snape pushes that stuttering teacher, Professor Quirrell into the wall. The Potions teacher holds onto the front of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher’s robes. What in Godrick’s name is going on here?!?

“You don’t want me as your enemy, Quirrell,” his deep voice says throughout the empty hallway. Harry and I walk to the other side of them as we continue to watch what is happening. I don’t want to draw to any conclusions but this is really suspicious.

“W-What do y-y-ou mean?” the purple turban teacher stutters out.

“You know exactly what I mean,” professor Snape says but then he stops talking. Slowly, he turns his head in our direction before slowly raising his right arm in the air toward us. Quickly, I put my hand over Harry’s mouth as we take a couple steps back from them. Thankfully, when the teacher swipes through the air we have already moved far enough away that he didn’t get us. After not getting anything, he pulls his hand back while pointing at the stuttering man. While watching all of this happening, I continue to watch Quirrell and I realize that he should be more scared than he actually is. Considering this teacher and how scared he normally is he seems to not be that scared about being threatened by someone. This seems really unusual and Professor Snape’s behavior is also unusual.

“We will have another little chat soon after you have had time to think about where your loyalties lie,” the potion’s teacher says before stepping away from him just as Filch reaches them. I look down and I notice that he is carrying the lantern that we brought to the library. Great! Now, the teachers are going to be on guard! I roll my eyes at my own sarcasm before pulling Harry with me as I slowly walk backwards. As we are walking backwards I realize that I still have my hand on my brother’s mouth and I quiet let my hand fall to my side.

“Oh, professors!” Filch stops in front of them and doesn’t even realize what has just transpired between the two. He holds up our lantern while saying to the professors, “I found this in the Restricted Section and it is still hot.” Snape and Quirrell look at him questioningly so the old man has to clarify about what he is getting at, “There seems to be some students out of bed.” Right after he says that, Snape rushes away with the other two following behind him.

Once they are far enough away, I turn around and notice that there is a door right behind us. Harry looks at the door as well and pulls the latch up. We push the door open and quickly walk inside the very large room. The door closes behind us and we let the cloak fall to the ground. The room is vast and empty, well, almost empty. In one glance the room looks completely empty because there is no furniture or paintings; only the cement brick walls and floor. When you look around the second time that is when you realize that there is one object in the entire room. The object is really large and it is shaped like a mirror. Looking closer, I realize that the object is actually a full length mirror. Why is a mirror in a room all by itself?


	11. Mirror of Erised

“Why do you think that this mirror is in an empty room, big brother?” I ask him through our mind link as I continue to stare at the mirror. He shakes his head and walks toward the mirror with myself trailing behind him. I walk to the side of it as I look at the frame that the mirror is in. I actually like the looks of the mirror because it looks very antique looking. The one thing that I learned about myself in this past school year, besides the fact that I’m a witch, is that I absolutely love antique or old looking things. I delicately touch the frame and run my fingers up it as I feel the cold smooth metal underneath my touch. Movement in the mirror catches my attention as I notice Harry walking in front of it. He looks up to the top of the mirror frame and looks like he is reading something. Confusion wraps around me as I look up to the top of the frame as well and read what it says.

“Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi,” the words whisper throughout my mind as I continue to stare at it. Well, that definitely doesn’t look like English so it could be a different language that I have never seen before. At the same time, if it was a different language then wouldn’t it most likely be in a different alphabet than the English one. I don’t mean that every language has different characters than English ones but those specific words look like they would be in different characters. Another possibility is that considering that this is a mirror it could be words written backward. In which case the words would be, ‘Desire arts urhe tyo ebu urfac tyo no ishow.’ It has to be words written backward because ‘desire’ and ‘I show’ appear right after I spelled the words the other way. Maybe, the words are written backward and from right to left instead of the English standard of reading from left to right. After a second of trying to read it from right to left, this pops into my head, ‘I show not your face but your heart's desire.’ An overwhelming feeling of accomplishment passes through me and I have to hold back the urging to pat myself on the back for figuring it out, but I do allow a happy smile to appear on my face. I guess this is what the mirror does and I look down at the mirror again.

My older twin looks at the mirror with wide eyes as he moves even closer to it. Glancing at the mirror to see what caught his attention, all I see is his reflection but as I look back at Harry I notice that his eyes flicker back and forth as if he sees someone. Before I can ask him who he sees, my big brother says two words that make my heart clench painfully.

“Mom? Dad?” he whispers quietly as he continues to look in the mirror. I understand that this would be his heart’s desire and probably mine as well. He turns and looks over his shoulders before looking back at the mirror. Tears gather in my gold eyes as I continue to watch my brother react to ‘seeing’ our parents. I wonder what my parents look like because we have never even seen a picture of them. Harry reaches forward and lets his hand touch the surface of the mirror before retracting the limb back to himself after a minute. A few seconds later, he looks down at his left shoulder for a second before looking back to the left of the mirror. Slowly, a happy smile appears on his face before rushing towards the invisibility cloak that lays forgotten in front of the door.

“Big brother? Where are you going?” I quickly ask him through the link as he throws the cloak around his shoulders. He explains that he is going to grab the Weasel so that way he can see our parents as well. He leaves through the door before I could even try to explain to him what this mirror actually does.

Sighing, I turn towards the mirror before slowly walking in front of it. I assume that I would also see my parents in the mirror unless there is something else my heart desires more. An adult woman with long straight hair is standing to my left as a man with short hair and glasses is standing to my right. Right next to me is my twin brother who looks like a carbon copy of the adult male. All four of us are smiling and I am hugging my brother tightly with him hugging me back. The tears that were in my eyes this whole time, finally fall down my face before hitting the cold stone floor below me. I kind of already knew that my deepest desire is to be in a happy family but it still makes me really sad. I mean in this world I am alone with my brother and we are not in a happy family nor will we ever be. In this mirror world, my brother and I are living with our parents and we are one big happy family.

Before I could think anymore on this matter, I hear the door quickly open and then somewhat slam shut. Harry drags the Weasel out from underneath the cloak before heading straight to the mirror. I quickly move away from the mirror and towards a corner of the room. Staring at the cement brick wall, I try to wipe away the tears from my face but they keep coming. Sighing, I give up on trying to wipe the tears away and instead focus on happy thoughts. I think about the presents that I got hours earlier and what I made for each of my friends.

For Draco, I made him a braided bracelet with silver and dark green yarn that I found inside the dormitory. I know that it isn’t much and it definitely doesn’t compare to the expensive necklace that he got me but I put all of my love into it. For my other best friend, I didn’t make her a present but instead decided to give Hermione my favorite muggle book that I own; I only owned one book. My favorite book is a classic called Gone With The Wind, and I absolutely adore that book to pieces. What better gift to give to a bookworm than a good book? Finally, for Fred and George, I decided to make them a few muggle pastries such as; chocolate fudge brownies, chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, maple doughnuts, chocolate chip cookies, and a couple of other desserts as well as chocolate chip pancakes. I know that pancakes aren’t considered desserts but pancakes can be eaten at any time. Of course, I gave all four of them and Mrs. Weasley thank you cards that I also created.

Focusing back to the present, I realize that the tears are gone and a smile is on my face. I turn around to see that Ron is gone and that my brother is sitting in front of the mirror. How long was I thinking about gifts? Slowly, I walk over to his side and sit down on the cold floor. I lean my head onto his shoulder as we continue to look at the mirror but now I don’t see anything because I’m not directly in front of the reflective surface. Honestly, I’m actually kind of happy that I don’t see anything because I don’t want to be sad again. I got to focus on the present time instead of focusing on something that could never happen.

“Big brother, are you alright?” I quietly think before pushing those words into his mind. He shakes his head as he lays it on top of my head. I don’t know for how long we stayed in that position but I do know that I am ready to fall asleep. Unfortunately, I don’t want to break this sad atmosphere just because I am tired so I slowly start to drift off into unconsciousness as I sit there next to him. Closing my tired eyes, mental pictures of my parents appear behind my eyelids and my heart yearns to see them in real life and not just in a mirror. What am I thinking?!? I just said to myself that I should focus on the present and not dwell on things that could never happen…but who is to say that seeing my dead parents could never happen. I mean a few months ago, if someone told me that I was a witch and that I would be going to a magical school called Hogwarts, I would say that that would never happen, and yet, here I am. Maybe, just maybe, my parents will either come back to life or I could at least meet them in real life, I mean ghosts. The ghost theory would be a more likely thing of happening because Hogwarts is full of ghosts that just hang around. So, maybe the ghosts of my parents will appear and see us.

“Back again, Harry, Anastasia?” the voice that belongs to the headmaster says behind us and I quickly wake up from the shock of hearing someone. We scramble to get up from the floor and stand in front of the mirror. His words go through my mind and I wonder why he says ‘back again’. I mean this is our first time finding this mirror and even being here. Oh! He must be referring to my brother leaving and coming back. Except, how does he know about that or even about us being here?

“I see that you two have fallen, like so many before you, for the delights of the Mirror of Erised. I trust that you two have figured out what this mirror actually does,” he says and I look over at my brother before pushing the memory of what the mirror said into his mind. Harry looks briefly at me in surprise before answering our headmaster.

“It shows us our hearts’ deepest desires,” my brother says and the elderly man nods his head as he moves in front of the mirror.

“You two, who have never known your family sees them right next to you,” he gently says while looking at the mirror with his half-moon glasses, “Except, you should remember that this mirror doesn’t give us truth nor knowledge. Men have wasted away in front of this mirror and that is why tomorrow it will be moved to a new home. I must ask you two to not go looking for it. It is best to not dwell on dreams and forget how to live.”

I nod my head at his words and I look over to my brother to see that he is also nodding his head. Grabbing his hand, I smile at the headmaster before walking towards the door with my brother behind me. Harry grabs the cloak as we walk by it, and we head towards our houses. Right before we separate to go in different directions, I pull my twin into a bear hug while remembering Dumbledore’s words.

“Like he said, Harry, don’t forget to live because of that mirror,” I whisper into his mind before pulling away from him to give him a small smile. He gently nods his head before kissing my forehead and walking away to the Gryffindor commons. I turn in the opposite direction and head towards the Slytherin commons.

A few days later, the students that left for winter break are finally returning to school. Ever since finding the Mirror of Erised, Harry and I decided to focus on living instead of dwelling on the past. We have made a bunch of snowmen, have fought many snowball wars, and drank many cups of hot chocolate. Every now and then the Weasel would join us in our merry-making but not enough to ruin my mood. Honestly, though, I am actually happy to have my friends coming back to Hogwarts because I need to know if they liked my presents or not. Unfortunately, all of my friends were too busy during their Christmases to write me letters but I understand. I mean I was busy with my own Christmas to send them many letters.

“Ana!” a voice that I definitely recognize shouts over the crowd of students entering the grand hall. A hand appears over the crowd and waves at me. Smiling, I push through the crowd and throw my pale arms around my best friend, Draco. He wraps his arms around my waist and twirls me around in the air. A giggle escapes my lips as he sets me down on the ground again.

“It feels like it has been an eternity since the last time I saw you,” I write in my notepad before showing it to him. He laughs while agreeing with me as he picks his suitcase back up. During this time, I notice that he is wearing the bracelet that I made him for Christmas. My smile grows even wider as a hand grabs the necklace that I am wearing. The movement of my hand makes Draco look at my neck and he smiles as he notices the necklace around it.

“I see that you liked my gift,” my friend says as his smile changes into his usual smirk. I roll my eyes at his behavior and nod my head. He laughs while ruffling my hair and then grabs my hand with the hand that isn’t holding onto his suitcase, “I love your gift to me by the way. My mother thought that it was adorable.”

My cheeks flush at his words but my consciousness still feels guilty for not getting him an actual gift. He must have seen my change of mood because he gently squeezes my hand while looking at me. I sigh before pulling my hand away from him and grab my notepad. Slowly, I explain how I feel about his gift and my gift to him in return. Draco slightly frowns at my written words before pulling me into an empty hallway. He sets his large trunk on the ground before pulling me into a hug.

“Believe it or not, Anastasia, but I absolutely love your gift and it is the best gift that I have ever received,” I stare at him with a disbelieving look as he pulls away. He shakes his head as a smile appears on his face, “I’m serious! Instead of the usual gifts of just being me something, YOU made me a gift that I can bet has your love in it.”

With the growing blush on my face, I smile appears on my face as I drag him into another hug. This boy is very sweet and I’m honestly starting to think of him as another brother. Except, even though he and I are the same age I see him as a big brother just like Harry. Sometimes, this boy is too sweet for his own good even though a lot of people apparently don’t see that. I will admit that Draco isn’t the best at first impression but once you get to know him he is really sweet and protective.

As we start heading towards the commons again, my name being called makes us stop before turning around to see who it is. A mess of brown hair is running towards me and I run towards her as well. Hermione and I continue to hug before she quickly pulls away.

“Thank you! Thank you so much for getting me the Gone With The Wind book! I absolutely loved it and it only took me two days to read!” she says while slightly jumping up and down. I nod my head as I take out my notepad and write her a note.

“I’m glad that you liked your gift. There is a sequel to that book if you want to read it sometime. Unfortunately, I don’t have the sequel but I do know that there is one!” I give her the piece of paper that I took out of the notepad. She nods her head and gives me another hug before heading towards the Gryffindor commons.

Turning back to Draco, I grab his hand again and head towards the commons. Of course, we start to talk on the way there because the walk to the dungeons would be so boring if we just walked in silence. Right as we start to head down the staircase that leads to the dungeons, a pair of laughing gingers is walking past us. I point down the staircase to let Draco know to head onward without me as I run up behind the older boys and I jump onto one of their backs. Giggling, I hold on to the twin as the Weasley twins start to laugh at my silliness.

“Hello, little Potter,” the other twin says to me and I wave as I carefully get down off the other twin. I take out my notepad and quickly write out, ‘Hello, my twinies! Unfortunately, I’m not used to you guys yet and I have no idea who is who.’

“Well, I’m George-,” the twin chuckles and he is the one that I jumped on. I nod my head and turn to the other ginger.

“And I’m Fred,” Fred says as he ruffles my hair. I sigh and I’m curious to know if I have the sign ‘Please, ruffle my hair!’ on my forehead or something because why do people keep doing that. As if sensing my slight irritation, the ginger twins start to laugh before placing their arms around my shoulders which forces me to walk with them.

“Did you like-,”

“-Our gift to you?” the twins finish each other's sentence and it makes me kind of envious. Even though Harry and I are twins, we don’t do any of those twin things like finishing each other's sentences or know exactly what the other is thinking. The only thing that is remotely twin-y that we do is the part where I talk to my twin through our minds. I wouldn’t really count that though because I do that to Professor Snape as well.

Focusing back on their question, I nod my head enthusiastically while I quickly scribble on my notepad. Flipping the notepad around so that way they can read, the notepad says, “I thoroughly enjoy the chocolate and I hope that you enjoyed the pastries that I made you.”

“Yeah, that pastries-,” Fred starts to say, and George decides to finish it.

“-were really good. Our mom also says-,”

“-thank you for the pastries and as well-,”

“-as the thank you letters,” George finishes the sentences and they finally stop dragging me away from the dungeons. I glance around and I realize that we are in the snowy courtyard. Turn back around to the twins, I smile as I nod my head at their words but a question is still lingering in the back of my mind. Writing down the question on the notepad, I stop for a second as I hesitate whether or not if I want to know the answer to the question. Sighing, I turn the notepad around so that way they can read the question that I have which is, ‘Are you two my friends?’

“Of course, we are your friends!” Fred says after reading the question.

“I thought that that was plainly obvious when we got you a Christmas present,” George replies and I nod my head as I process their words. Putting the notepad in my skirt pocket, I hug both of the twins in a tight hug as happy tears cascade down my cheeks. I now have four friends! I am so happy!


	12. Getting Detention

It is finally springtime and unfortunately, all of the snow has melted at this point. Sadly the happy memories that were made in the snow also melt along with it, but now it is springtime and that just means that I have to make more happy memories.

Ever since the Mirror of Erised, Harry and I have been unable to go back to the library to find any information on Nicholas Flamel. The only time that I have been able to look for information is when I’m in the library doing homework which, by the way, my brother doesn’t do at all costs. Literally, the only time that my brother does his homework is when Hermione forces him to do it, along with the Weasel. Sorry, I’m starting to get sidetracked by my brother but I can’t help it. I mean, come on! Its only like a page of homework for each class. I’ll stop ranting now but I’ll probably come back to it later.

Back to Nicholas Flamel, I still have that déjà vu feeling every time I hear or even think his name. I honestly re-read all of the books that I have already read before the Quidditch game and I haven’t seen that name since. At this point, I feel like I am going crazy. Unfortunately, lately homework and tests have been taking up all of my extra time. Before I could look for the name while doing homework but now that is impossible to do.

Right now, Harry, Ron, and I are in the library doing our homework. Hermione is also in the library but she is simply looking at books instead of doing her homework. In fact, I believe that somehow she finished all of her homework already and I want to know her secret. I am exactly like her in the terms that we are both bookworms, we always raise our hands for questions(even though I can’t speak), and I always do my homework. Except, she has all of her work done while I’m only halfway finished.

Sighing, I shake my head and focus back on the transfiguration paper that is in front of me. What does Professor McGonagall even mean with these questions?!? I am starting to get frustrated and I forcefully run my hands through my hair as I continue to stare at the paper. I wonder if there is a spell to make homework disappear into a dark abyss for all of the eternity. Usually, I am okay with homework, not happy but okay, yet this homework has tested my patience and absolutely destroyed it. As I start to dwell on my negative emotions, Hermione comes over to the table that I am sitting at with my brother and the Weasel.

“How could I be so stupid?!?” my brunette friend says as she slams a large book onto the desk surface. I smile at the distraction that my friend has brought me and I close the homework inside the book that I was using. I start to focus on anything other than the work because I really don’t want my emotions to be sour for the rest of the day. I giggle slightly when I notice that the other guys quickly put away their homework as well as if they also needed this distraction.

“I checked this book out a couple of weeks ago for a little bit of light reading,” she says as she opens the large book. Oh, my Godric! I forgot about reading this book with Hermione when we got the time! Oh, my Salazar! This book is the book that I have been looking for since the first Quidditch match. THIS book has the information about Nicholas Flamel that we have been searching for. My excitement goes into overdrive and I start bouncing in my seat as I grab onto Hermione’s arm. She looks over at me as I continue to jump around in my seat, and she smiles at my happiness but her smiles turn into a glare directed at Ron when he says his next sentence.

“This,” he says with his eyebrows rising up into his hairline, “is some light reading?!?” After he says that I also glare but then it quickly disappears because I will not allow him to ruin my newfound happy mood. It appears that Hermione silently agrees with me and focuses on the book in-between all of us. Helping out my friend, we flip through the book together until we reach the page that has the name Nicholas Flamel on it.

“Here it is,” the brunette says as she runs her finger along the page. Clearing her throat she reads what the book says out loud, “ ‘Nicholas Flamel is the only known maker of the Sorcerer’s Stone(also known as the Philosopher's Stone).’”

“The what?” my brother and his friend both ask Hermione. I turn to look at my friend and we both roll our eyes at their blatantly obvious lack of reading. We focus back on the more illiterate bunch of this mismatched group.

“Do you guys seriously not read?” I write down on my notepad before holding it up to the two boys. My big brother smiles at me while looking embarrassed. The Weasel just shrugs his shoulders and turns his attention on Hermione. Sighing, I turn to also look at the bushy brunette who is looking at the book and let her explain what the Sorcerer’s Stone actually is.

“ ‘The Sorcerer’s Stone is a legendary substance that transforms any metal into pure gold and produces the Elixir of Life, which makes the drinker immortal,’” Hermione says but before she can continue reading the text the Weasel interrupts her.

“Immortal?!” he exclaims and we all look up at him. Quickly, I write the definition out onto a piece of paper before handing it to him. He reads it before giving me a dirty look, “I know what immortal means!” My brother silences him and I giggle slightly before looking back at Hermione. She gives me a high five underneath the table before she continues to read the book.

“ ‘There is only one stone currently in existence, and that belongs to Mr. Nicholas Flamel who just celebrated his 665th birthday.’ That’s what Fluffy is guarding and that’s what is underneath the trap door. The Sorcerer’s Stone!”

We all look at each other with worry clearly evident on all of our faces. What are we going to do because we now know what is underneath the trap door but we don’t know why it is there? I suppose that whoever is trying to get to the stone wants the Elixir of Life that it can produce because I seriously doubt that whoever is trying to get to it would do all of this just for the ability to turn every metal into gold. I mean that is a great ability to own but still, I would think that going through a three-headed dog and a giant school would just be too much.

I turn my attention back to the soul-crushing homework that still needs to get done. Sighing, I force myself to open the textbook and look back at the transfiguration homework. Please, let there be some excitement around the corner because this is the most boring homework in the entire world.

My big brother, Weasel, Hermione, and I are quickly walking across the dark field towards the half-giant’s hut, also known as Hagrid. We had to wait until it was completely dark out and everyone was asleep before we could head over to Hagrid. After learning about the Sorcerer’s Stone we decided that we needed to talk to the one person that will give us the answers that we need.

We knock on his door with some urgency because we are actually not supposed to be out after dark. Again, I am pulled into going against the rules because I love my big brother and my best friend, the Weasel I could care less about. Unlike the other time, this time it was harder to sneak out of the Slytherin commons because there are more people at school now. Maybe, I should ask Fred and George how they sneak around the castle because the one thing that I learned about those two over the past season is that they can get through the school without being seen.

Hagrid opens the wooden door and quickly realizes who is at his door in the middle of the night.

“Hagrid-!” my big brother starts to say but is cut off by the giant.

“I don’t wish to be rude but I am in no state to entertain today,” he tells us with a somewhat smile underneath his fuzzy black beard. Hagrid starts to close the door and we start to panic so we said the one thing that comes into all of our minds.

“We know about the Sorcerer’s Stone!” we, minus myself, call out to him as he shuts his door. A second later he slowly opens the door back up while looking at us with a disbelieving look on his face. He says ‘oh!’ and turns around before walking further into his hut. We all look at each other before stepping inside the small house and I close the door behind us.

“I think that Snape is trying to steal it,” my brother says and I roll my eyes slightly while Hagrid groans after hearing that. Honestly, I still have my doubts that Professor Snape is the one trying to steal the stone. Yes, I’ll admit that him threatening Professor Quirrell is very unusual and makes me lean towards my brother’s side but at the same time, Quirrell wasn’t a pure saint either. The one thing that everyone learns about this stuttering teacher is that he is a very scared person in general, a scared-y cat per say. Oddly enough, when my head of the house threatened the already scared teacher that same teacher was actually pretty calm during the whole thing. That being said I think that that is very suspicious in itself. I guess that my brother didn’t notice Quirrell during that exchange because he never commented on it. Shaking my head I focus back on the present time and decide to think about my suspicions later.

“You are still not going on about him, are you?” Hagrid says as he walks to his fireplace.

“We know that he is going to try and take the stone!” Harry says as he and Ron sit down next to the fire while Hermione sits on an armchair on the other side of the room. There really isn’t any other chairs to sit at that is close to the fireplace, so I decide to sit on the armrest of the chair that Hermione is sitting at. Hagrid checks into the pot that is hanging above the fire before turning to my brother.

“Look, Snape is one of the teachers protecting the stone. He wouldn’t go and try to steal it,” he says and we all look at each other with confusion.

“What?!” we all say to him, while I think that word in my mind. After we say that, Hagrid tells us that he is a little bit preoccupied today and tries to get us out of his house. Unfortunately, for him anyway, he couldn’t get us out of his house fast enough because Harry starts to question him again.

”Wait for a second! What do you mean, ‘one of the teachers’?” my brother is honestly confused at this point while my brunette friend seems to be having a brain surge.

“Now, I get it! There are other things guarding the stone beside Fluffy! For example, there are spells and enchantments guarding it as well!” she says while Hagrid agrees with her but he mumbles about it being a waste of time. Hermione and I glance over at the Weasel to see an old black dog getting into his face. The Weasel appears to not really like the dog because he looks slightly disgusted.

Before we could talk with him further, we start to hear some weird clicking and cracking noises coming from the pot that is above the fire. What in the world is inside that pot? With some oven mittens on, Hagrid grabs a shiny goldish-looking egg from the pot but I guess that even with oven mitts on it still is hot because Hagrid quickly hurries over to the small round dining table to gently place the egg on the surface. After setting the egg down, we, (meaning Harry, Ron, Hermione, and ), hurry around the table to get a better look at it.

“Um, Hagrid? What is that?” my big brother asks him as he continues to stare at the egg. I nod my head while I move so that way I am standing in-between my brother and Hermione. The half-giant tries to come up with an excuse but couldn’t think of anything.

“I know what that is! Hagrid, how did you get one?” the red-headed Weasel exclaims while he continues to stare at the wobbling egg. Hagrid starts to explain about how he won the egg from a guy at the pub but I kind of tune him out. Instead, I focus on the egg that is making pecking noises and is rolling around the table. Thinking back to all of the books that I have read since coming to Hogwarts, I remember that there was this one book that I read which was full of different kind of eggs. I start to mentally cross off all of the different species of eggs that this egg is definitely not a part of. Finally, after a minute of going through all of the species on my mental list, there is only one kind of egg that is left. This egg is a dragon egg…and…it…is… hatching right now. Every single one of us slowly takes a few steps away from the table. A few seconds later the shell of the egg breaks into a few large pieces and then flew apart. Thankfully, the pieces did not harm any of us but we did cover our faces just in case.

We uncover our eyes and I gasp at the sight before me. A baby dragon which is about the size of a small dog is looking around the table. It is super adorable and I love how the scales have a brownish-green color to it. I wonder if it is a boy or a girl. The dragon tries moving around like a bat but it’s back legs slip on the eggshell and it decides to just stand still for a few seconds.

“That is a Norwegian Richback!” Ron says as he looks at the baby dragon. As the dragon hears the Weasel’s voice, it turns to look at him before spinning completely around so that way it is facing Hagrid, “My brother, Charlie, works with them in Romania!”

“Isn’t he beautiful?!” Hagrid says with parents love clearly evident in his face. Well, I guess that answers my question whether if the dragon is a boy or girl, “Look! He recognizes his mommy! Hello, Norbert!” The half-giant starts to pet the dragon underneath his head and Norbert leans his head into his new ‘mommy’s’ touch. I smile with happiness as I watch the interaction between the two. My smile turns into a frown however when Norbert sneezes and accidentally spews fire at Hagrid. Thankfully, it isn’t that much fire and it only singes his beard.

“Who is that?” Hagrid asks as he leans forward. Curiously, I turn my head to look at the kitchen window and I see my blonde friend’s face in the window. Draco realizes that he has been caught and he quickly leaves the window but he doesn’t come into the hut.

“Malfoy,” my brother says with slight irritation in his voice. I smack his arm for sounding like he doesn’t like my friend. I turn back towards the window and I am starting to worry about why he just ran away. Is he going to tell on us for being out past curfew? No, he wouldn’t do that to me. Draco is my best friend and I am his. He would never intentionally get me into trouble. Feeling reassured about this, I turn back to Hagrid as he is also looking out the window.

“Oh dear,” Hagrid says and we all realize that it is probably time to go. We all start to say goodbye to the half-giant and I give him a hug as my way of saying goodbye. On the way out of the door, I quickly stroke Norbert’s head before shutting the door behind us. This time we didn’t have to race across the fields to get back to Hogwarts but we are still being sneaky because we do not want to get caught by any of the professors.

Thankfully, we didn’t get caught or anything as we enter the school but now here comes the hardest part. We have to sneak around the actual building without being caught. I know that doesn’t sound too bad but there are professors who are patrolling the halls of the school, and also Mr. Filch. Also, we didn’t memorize their patrolling patterns and so we don’t know if they’re going to just pop out around the next corner. This uncertainty makes this adventure back to our dormitories even scarier.

“Hagrid has always wanted a dragon. He even told me of that wish when I first met him,” my brother says as a way of starting a conversation. Silently laughing at his attempt, I wrap my arm around his shoulders as we continue to walk down a corridor.

“The worst part about all of this is that Malfoy knows,” the Weasel says and I sent him a deathly glare after that sentence comes out of his mouth. Unfortunately, before I can write him a clever response to that rude comment, I hear the clicking of heels echoing across the hall. Turning my attention to the head of us, and I watch as Professor McGonagall comes around the corner with a candle in her hand. She stops in front of us but Hermione and Harry haven’t noticed the teacher in some pajama robes. I remove my arm from around my brother and quickly start to tug on his sleeve. Keeping my eyes on the teacher, I noticed Harry looking at me from the corner of my eye and I direct his attention to the professor. We all stop in front of her and the hallway is eerily quiet. It is so quiet that after a few seconds of just standing there I gulp down my spit and everyone could hear it.

“Good evening,” McGonagall says with a stern look on her face. How did she know that we were out here? I mean if she was one of the teachers patrolling she wouldn’t be in her pajamas. My question is answered when I see Draco step out from behind her. Seeing him makes my eyes open wide while betrayal slashes through my heart and I know that it is evident on my face because when he looks at me I can see guilt on his pale face. Apparently, he would tell on me even though I am his best friend. How could he have done this to me?

Forcing the tears away, I sharply to away from that boy and give my full attention to Professor McGonagall. She silently motions us to come into her classroom and we all quietly enter the room. My big brother can tell that I am ready to cry and so he puts his arm around my shoulders. Draco tries to talk to me as we walk past him but I turn my head away from him and continue to walk in. I hear him sigh behind me before also hearing him follow behind us. Once we are in front of her desk, the transfiguration teacher starts her lecture.

“Nothing and I mean NOTHING, gives a student permission to walk about the school at night. I have decided as punishment that fifty points will be taken,” she says and all of our jaws drop in horror. Well, everyone has their mouths dropped open beside Draco who is smirking at our misfortune. How can he stand there and smile at this!?! No friend just stands there and smiles at their friend's punishment! Seeing that smile makes my sadness morph into anger and I close my jaw with a snap.

“Fifty!” my brother shouts and the adult clarifies her ruling.

“Each!” she says and my brother looks angry as he closes his mouth. I pat him on the back as we wait for her to continue, “Just to make sure that this doesn’t happen again, the five of you will receive a detention.” Five? Why did she say five? I look over and I notice that Draco’s smirk fell from his face and he seems to have heard her say five.

“Excuse me, professor, but I think I heard you wrong. Did you say ‘the five’ of us?” he says as he steps closer to her desk. McGonagall explains to him that even though his intentions were good, he was also out of bed and so he has to have detention as well. All four of us smile when we realize that Draco also gets punished along with us. I do feel slightly sad for him but that is quickly overpowered by the rest of me feeling happy that he is also in trouble. He snitched on us and he is still getting punished, that’s amazing! That is what he deserves for treating me as a total stranger and smiling at my misfortune.

Apparently, the detention is going to be served with Hagrid and that is awesome but it is also taking place in the Forbidden Forest. I don’t understand why we are having detention in the FORBIDDEN Forest. First, they tell us that we cannot go into the forest but now they’re like ‘Here! We are sending into a deadly forest for your detention. Have fun!’ I mean seriously!

Mr. Filch is leading us out of the castle towards Hagrid’s hut with a lantern in his hand. Draco is walking behind him while I stay on the opposite side of my brother, so that way I am as far away from Malfoy as possible. Ever since we left McGonagall’s office, Draco has been trying to talk to me but I simply stick with my brother because I don’t want to blow up on him. I don’t want to ruin this fragile friendship, because we literally became friends a few weeks back, and I just don’t want to deal with that again. Especially since he gave me that beautiful necklace which, surprisingly, I’m wearing right at this moment. SO, until I am not angry with Malfoy I’m just going to stick with my twin and another friend.

“I’m sorry about this, Hagrid,” Filch says to the half-giant that we just talked to. Unfortunately, Hagrid doesn’t reply to the mean, old man and continues to sniffle like he has been crying very recently. Mr. Filch sighs, “Good God, are you still going on about that dragon?” Understanding dawns on me when I put two and two together, and I instantly feel bad for the kind man. Ignoring the fact that I’m here for detention and the fact that the tall man is holding a crossbow, I hug the giant man as much as I can.

“Norbert is gone. Dumbledore has sent him to Romania to live with the other dragons,” Hagrid says as he puts my back while still sniffling. I tighten my grip on him as a way of comforting him, and he pats me on the head before pushing me gently back to the rest of the group. Poor guy, he finally got his wish of owning a dragon and now that dragon is gone.

“Isn’t that good though? He is living with his own kind now,” Hermione tries to reassure him but Hagrid doesn’t take too kindly to it.

“Well, what if he doesn’t like it there? What if the other dragons pick on him? He is only just a baby,” the kind man says while Filch rolls his eyes. I am really tempted to hit this guy in the face. How rude can this man get?!? Hagrid has just lost his ‘child’ and this man has the nerve to roll his eyes! Why are there so many rude people at this school?

“Pull yourself together, man! You are going into the forest after all and you need to have your wits about you,” Filch says and that seems to have reigned in Hagrid's sadness for now. He straightens up a little and doesn’t sniffle any longer. He tightens his grip on his crossbow and leads us into the forbidden forest. What will be waiting for us inside this forest?


	13. Forbidden Forest

I can honestly say that this forest is the scariest place on the planet. As Hagrid, Draco, Ron, Hermione, my brother, Fang, and I are walking through the Forbidden Forest, I look around our surroundings and they are very bare. The only thing around us is eighty-foot tall trees and dead grass underneath all of our feet. Hard crunching noises are made as we step on dead leaves and sticks that for some reason are still here since autumn. A dense fog is keeping me from being able to see further than thirty feet in front of us. Even with Hagrid carrying a large lantern, the fog stays around the forest and keeps us from catching glimpses inside of it. The fog isn’t the only natural phenomenon that makes this forest creepy. In fact, the complete pitch black darkness is another factor that makes me want to run all the way back to Hogwarts. In order to feel some security, I push myself into my big brother’s side as much as possible and he wraps his left arm around my shoulders as we continue to walk behind Hagrid.

We keep walking in complete silence until we reach a more lively part of the forest. By ‘more lively’ I literally mean where there are some green bushes and some green grass. For the most part, however, everything is still dead and still creepy. Hagrid stops a few feet ahead of us and sets his crossbow next to a turned over dead tree, also known as a log with its roots still attached. I pull my heavier cloak closer around me as I watch the half-giant kneel down on the ground. Confusion crosses over me as I notice that Hagrid’s body is blocking my view of what he is looking at. Stepping away from my brother’s side, I move to the right side of the group to only stop and cover my mouth with my hand as a gasp escapes my lips. There is a giant pool of silver liquid on the dirt floor! I know that that doesn’t sound scary or sad but my mind instantly goes back to the book that I just recently finished. The book was about unicorns and apparently in the wizarding world…they…are…REAL!!!! Godric, I was so excited over that fact so I read the entire book in two days. The unicorn is the purest being in the world.

“What’s wrong, Ana?” Draco worriedly asks me and momentarily I forget about what transpired earlier. I hug him tightly as I try to force the horrendous thoughts and images out of my head. There can be only two possible reasons as to why there is unicorn blood on the ground in that large of quantity, and they are two possibilities that I don’t want to think about.

“Hagrid? What is that?” I hear my brother ask the man, as I feel someone’s presence coming closer to me. The feeling of someone’s hand rubbing slow circles on my back makes me look over and I realize that it is my brother. He continues to watch Hagrid as I hear the man standing up from his kneeling position by the crunching of the leaves.

“This is why we are here. See this? This is unicorn blood,” Hagrid says and I feel my brother’s hand stop its movements while Draco’s arms tighten their grip around me.

“Is this why you’re crying, Ana? You knew it was unicorn blood,” Draco whispers in my ear and I nod my head. Pulling away from him, I wipe away the tears that I didn’t know I shed and look at my fellow Slytherin. Suddenly, all of the scenes that transpired earlier that made us come here in the first place comes running into the front of my mind. Quickly, I turn away from Draco and walk over to Hermione, who still has her mouth opened after learning that the liquid is blood from a unicorn.

“I found a dead one a few weeks back,” Hagrid continues his reason for us being out here, “This one appears to be hurt badly.”

Right as he finished that sentence, I hear some rustling of bushes but it isn’t coming from the light breeze that is passing through. I turn my head to my right I notice a dark outline of a cloaked figure walking through the trees. Jumping a few inches in the air, I look around to see if anyone has seen what I just saw. Thankfully, I notice that my brother is looking over in the same direction that I was previously looking. He turns to look at me with wide green eyes and I nod my head slowly as a silent way of saying that I saw the same thing.

“It is our job to find this creature,” Hagrid says while he looks over in the direction that my brother and I were looking for earlier when I noticed our facial expressions. I nod my head quickly after he says that because I have to stay optimistic and hope that the unicorn is alive, “Now, Ron, Hermione, you will come with me.”

“O-Okay,” Ron says with fear clear as day in his voice. I feel some sympathy for him because it is a creepy forest with a potential unicorn attacker on the lose. Honestly, I’m most likely as scared as him but the thought of a wounded creature makes my fear get replaced with determination.

“Harry, Anastasia, you will go with Malfoy,” Hagrid says and I nod my head while moving over to my brother’s side. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice that my brother and fellow Slytherin give each other a disgusted kind of look. Oh, for the love of Salazar! Please, don’t have my brother and my friend fight the entire time. After they give each other that disgusted look, my brother looks back at Hagrid and gives him a small nod.

“Alright, but I get Fang,” Draco says and I smile as I look down at the old dog. I start to pet him on the head while Hagrid agrees with Draco but also tells us that the dog is a coward. Well, even though the dog isn’t brave he can still give us some more support while we explore the forest, as the saying goes, ‘there is safety in numbers’!

My twin, Fang, Draco, and I walk in the opposite direction than the others. Before Hagrid left us alone, he gave Draco a lantern and told us to yell if anything happens. I don’t know about everyone else but this seems highly dangerous and unsafe. How is the school allowing this?

“Wait until my father hears about this,” Draco sneers while holding up the lantern. I look over at my best friend and a sudden wave of fatigue makes me realize that I honestly don’t want to fight with him. He is my best friend and maybe he had a good reason for telling Professor McGonagall on us. If I had brought my notepad I would have asked him about it right now but I didn’t bring it nor do I think that this is a good time to ask him. Nudging him in his side, I give him a smile when he looks over at me. Draco gives me a hesitant smile as if he is unsure if I actually forgive him or not. At the moment, I don’t forgive him for ratting us out but like I said maybe he had a good reason for doing that. After a few seconds have passed, my blonde friend finally gives me his usual happy smile that I have grown used to.

“If I don’t know better, I would say you were scared,” my twin brother says to the blonde boy as we continue to walk. My friend’s smile quickly disappears and is replaced with a deathly glare aimed towards my big brother. I sigh when I realize that my wish didn’t come true and it appears that they are starting to argue with each other. Shaking my head in disappointment, I fall behind them and start to pet Fang, who starts wagging his tail slightly from happiness.

“Scared, Potter,” Draco spites out at Harry when suddenly a low moaning sound appears behind us. Quickly as possible, we all turn our heads toward the noise but we end up not seeing anything. After not seeing anything for a couple of seconds, we all turn around and continue heading straight down the path. As if he was offended by being called out as being scared, Malfoy walks a few feet ahead of us and I sigh with relief when I realize that they aren’t arguing anymore.

We keep walking until we reach an area that has a lot of tree roots on top of the earth instead of inside it. Thankfully, the fog has thinned out a little bit so now I can see a little bit more of our surroundings. By this time, Draco has fallen back with my brother and me while Fang went in front of us. Just to make sure that these two don’t start arguing again, I decide to walk in-between them so that way they aren’t too close to each other. The path starts to descend a little bit and turns to left after a large tree. Without any caution, we turn the corner and end up in a medium-sized open area.

As we enter the area, Fang stops walking and stands very still. Draco, Harry, and I stop right behind him as we look around the forest. Fang’s deep growling makes all of us snap our attentions towards him as we try to figure out why he is growling. Glancing up, I notice that Draco is looking straight ahead of us and not even glancing at the growling dog. Finding that curious, I look down at Fang to realize that he is also looking straight ahead of us. My mind goes into high alert as I slowly look up towards the other end of the open space. A horror filled gasp escapes my lips when really I want to scream out in sadness and anger.

“Sister? Fang? What’s wrong?” my brother asks before he looks up as well and realizes what we are all looking at. A dark cloaked person is bent over a pure white unicorn and drinking its blood from its neck. Big fat tears cascade down my face as I realize that this pure creature is being killed right in front of me. Anger flares up inside of me out of nowhere, and I quickly start to look around on the ground. Finding a good-sized stick, I pick it up and chuck towards the horrible person that would kill something as beautiful as a unicorn just to live a little longer. Yes, that is correct. A person that kills a unicorn and drinks its blood can live longer but they would live a cursed life. Apparently, I have a really good throwing arm because the stick smacks the person right in the head.

Right as the person looks up with a snarl, my brother lets out a pain filled gasp before holding his hand up to his scar. If I look really close I can see silver blood dripping out of the man’s mouth. As suddenly as it appeared, the anger that flared up inside of me disappeared and all that is left is my body shaking very badly with fatigue clouding my mind. Draco screams and grabs my arm before running away with Fang hot on our trail. Assuming that my brother is following behind me, I follow along with Draco and run but surprisingly making my legs move is really hard to do. The more steps that I take the more tired my body becomes which makes it harder for me to keep up with my friend.

I force my head to turn around behind me to see if my brother is following us but to my sheer panic, Harry isn’t behind us which means that Harry is still back there with that unicorn killer! My feet finally give out and I fall to the dirty forest floor. Painfully slow, I make my right arm go up and push my body so that way I am now looking at the dark clear sky above the forest. As I continue to stare up at the sky, my vision starts to blur like I need to blink my eyes but instead of wanting to blink my eyes, my body starts to slowly close them. My conscious starts to slip away as my brain shuts down from all of the fatigue. The last full thought my brain makes is, “Is my brother going to die out here alone? Am I?”

Draco’s POV

As I am running away from that thing, I manage to grab Ana’s hand and drag her behind me. Apparently, the dumb dog, Fang, had the same idea as me because he is running ahead of us. Finally, I stop yelling but I continue to run with my best friend. Unfortunately, as we are running I feel Ana’s hand get yanked out of my grasp and I look back to see the sight of my only friend laying face first on the dirt path. I quickly stop and rush back to her but she doesn’t respond to me.

“Ana! Ana, you have to get up!” I practically shout at her but she doesn’t move. However, right as I lean down to grab her shoulders I notice that her arm is slowly coming towards her side before pushing her onto her back. A sigh of relief escapes me as I realize that she is alright, “Ana, you had me worrying there for a second.” She continues to look past me towards the night sky above us, “Ana?” I wave my hand in front of her face but she doesn’t even flinch or anything. Worry fully consumes me as I notice that she is slowly closing her unusually gold eyes.

Realizing that I can’t help her on my own, I start to call out her brother when I realize that he isn’t here either. Oh, Godric! Potter must still be back there with that thing. Honestly, even though that boy drives me bonkers, I still like him and want him to be my friend. Unfortunately, I have a dumb way of showing that I want to be friends with him. I mean, I got all of us into this situation because I told on my best friend and the one other person that I want to be friends with. There really wasn’t a reason behind doing that but I simply told on them because that boy does annoy me. I didn’t even notice that Anastasia was there as well!

Shaking my head, I look down at my best friend and I realize that she is knocked unconsciousness. Urgency runs through my brain as I look around frantically hoping that someone will appear. Or in our case that big half-giant that I didn’t care to remember its name.

“Hold on, Ana! I’ll go get someone,” I tell her unconscious body and head in the direction that we split up from the rest of the group. During the entire run there, I yell for the rest of the group. Hearing barking up ahead, I run even faster and quickly the light of a lantern rapidly approaches.

Stopping in front of the half-giant, I bend over and try to suck in air that my flaring lungs desperately need. With gasping in-between, I try to explain to the others what happened and surprisingly they believe me. Honestly, I was expecting I would have to show them where the Potters were before they would believe me but apparently not. After I finish explaining what had happened, we immediately run in the direction that I came from.

Literally, a minute later we all see a small figure lying in the middle of the path. Even though that means that Ana is still unconscious, I’m glad that she is at least still where I left her. Every one surrounds her and I hear that muggle-born, Hermione, gasp when she sees how pale her friend is. The half-giant kneels down and checks Ana to make sure that she is alright. Well, alright in the sense that she doesn’t have any external injuries. Once he is assured that there aren't any external injuries, he gently picks her bridal style while still holding onto the only weapon we have in the forest. I hope my best friend, and honestly my little sister, is going to be alright.

Quickly, we arrive at the place that I left the other Potter at. Right as we arrive, the adult man holds up his crossbow just in case, but then puts it back down when he realizes that there is no danger. Harry Potter is standing in front of a centaur and is completely unharmed. The dangerous cloaked creature is no gone but the body of the unicorn lays untouched, well, from us anyway.

“Ah, Firenze! I didn’t see you there,” the half-breed calls out to the centaur with blonde hair and blue eyes. He carefully gives the bow to Ron and gets a better grip on the unconscious girl. He nods his head towards Potter while saying, “I see that you have become acquainted with our young Harry Potter.”

We are too far away to hear what the centaur says to the brunette boy but he gallops away after saying it. Harry turns toward us and slowly walks our way. His eyes widen from behind his glasses when he finally notices his sister in the giants arms. He runs forward and looks at his sister while talking frantically.

“What happened to her? Is my sister alright?” he asks everyone as he lays his hand on her pale, cold cheek. No one could answer those questions nor could anyone reassure him. I put my hand on his shoulder as we continue to stare at the innocent looking girl who is the sweetest person on the planet.

“I hope that she will be alright,” with that thought said, we all head towards the school while I continue to hold onto Harrys shoulder. Surprisingly, the brunette boy doesn’t seem to mind and in fact huddles a little bit closer to my body. Maybe, just maybe, he can still become my friend as well.


	14. Health

Slowly, I pry my gold eyes open but I swiftly close them again when a bright light pierces them. I try to lift my right arm but for some reason, it is unusually heavy. Giving a light sigh, I try to lift my left arm and this time I sluggishly move it over my eyes. Having that cover over my eyes, I open them more quickly without having to worry that a light is going to blind me again. I don’t know why but my entire body feels unnaturally tired. Holding back a groan, I move my head to the right and I realize that nobody is next to me. I thought that maybe there was a person on my right arm which would explain why I couldn’t lift my hand, but there is nothing that would keep my arm from moving. Maybe it is just because my body feels tired.

Looking around the room, I notice that I’m not in the girl's dormitory and I’m in a place that I have never been in before. There is a ton of windows in the cement brick walls and I continue to look around in confusion. How did I end up here? Right as I look around in the direction where a large wooden door is, a waft of medicinal smelling herbs that cause me to scrunch my nose up. Okay, I must be in the Hospital wing because there is no other place in the school that only smells like medication.

Sighing, I let my head fall back onto the pillow and I try to remember how I got here. The last thing that I remember is going into the Forbidden Forest for detention and…there was a unicorn killer. Everything else is fuzzy but the last coherent memory is about that unicorn killer. Every time I try to remember what happened after the unicorn killer it makes my head hurt to the point that it feels like it is going to split into two pieces. Why can’t I remember what happened?

Before I could hurt my head more than I already have, I hear the large wooden door creak open from my left. I let my left arm fall back onto the bed while I look over to see who enters the room. The medium-length black hair and long black cloak make the person instantly recognizable. Professor Snape immediately notices that I am awake and walks slowly over to me with his usual scowl on his twenty-year-old face.

“I see that are finally awake, Miss Potter,” he says and I smile at him before waving. Unfortunately, my happy mood is ruined with confusion when his words register in my mind.

“Professor Snape? What do you mean when you said ‘finally awake’?” I asked inside my mind before pushing into his. He looks at me before sighing and taking the seat that is next to my hospital bed. He looks off into space for a few seconds as if he is trying to figure out how to tell me something.

“Miss Potter, you have been in a mild coma for three days now,” he says without any stalling. My mouth opens with shock as my brain tries to process what he just said but for some reason, it is a very difficult concept to grasp.

“W-W-Why was I in a coma?” I ask him through my mind.

“It appears that you have an unhealthy body than other people. Your body can tire out faster than others and you may have difficulty performing more complex magic as time goes on because of this. If you overexert yourself in either physical or magical activity you could end up entering a coma for a longer period of time than just three days.” He explains to me as I look out the opposite window. I just don’t understand this!

“I don’t understand this, Professor!” I say in denial as I look straight into his black eyes. I am perfectly fine and healthy as a horse!

“Don’t give me that, foolish girl. Tell me, have you experienced times where after performing magic you felt tired or weak? Have you gotten really tired when you did physical activities?” he says as he raises an eyebrow at me. I am about to protest when memories start to flash throughout my mind. Every time I used the ‘Alohomora’ spell my arm felt unusually tired. If what he said is true then the reason behind the weak arm is because Alohomora is a more complex spell and my body just can’t handle it. Memories of having to sleep on the school roof also pop into my mind. Every time Dudley had the opportunity he would terrorize my brother and me with his friends. My brother and I would end up hiding on the school roof in order to get away from our cousin.

“I-I guess you’re right, Professor Snape. Except, why is my body unhealthy? I take care of my body as much as the other students here,” I ask him inside his head after carefully thinking through my memories.

“Your body isn’t unhealthy like you don’t take care of it. It appears that from looking over your body with spells, by Madam Pomfrey of course, it seems that there could have been a complication at your birth. Most likely you were not supposed to have survived birth,” my head of the house informs me and my world drains of all color. Was I really not supposed to have survived being born. How different would life be if I wasn’t a part of it? Was I a mistake? A hand on my shoulder stops me from thinking to dark and I turn to look at the owner of the hand.

“Don’t think such depressing thoughts, silly girl. If you were a mistake then you wouldn’t be here having a happy life,” Snape says to me as he pats my shoulder. Without even thinking about it, I throw my arms around his neck and start to silently cry on his shoulder.

“Am I not supposed to be alive, Professor?” I whimper into his mind and he doesn’t reply to me. Like I expected, he doesn’t hug me back but he awkwardly pats me on the back. After a few seconds, I pull away from him and lean back against the pillow as I feel emotionally drained. Against my will, my eyelids start to slowly close before sleep finally takes over my tired body. The last thing that I hear before I fully fall asleep is my potions teacher saying:

“You are definitely supposed to be alive, silly girl. You might not see it now, but there has to be a reason why you survived,” he drawls and I drift off to the land of dreams, where pleasant memories fill my mind.

Two days later, I am finally released from the hospital wing. Taking what the potion master said to heart, I decide to not tell Harry about how I shouldn’t have survived birth. In fact, I haven’t told anyone about that but I did tell my friends that I have a weaker body than most. Of course they were worried about me but after reassuring them that I’m not going to drop dead or anything, they all calmed down.

The fire is crackling in the fireplace as I am sitting on one of the couches in the Gryffindor commons. Hermione, Harry, Weasel, and I are the only ones up as my brother decides to tell us something important. Apparently, the person that I hit with a stick back in the Forbidden Forest was Voldemort and learning that key piece of information really is making me sick to my stomach. I’m pretty sure that I’m on his death list now.

“So, are you saying that You-Know-Who is out there, right now in the forest?” Hermione says as my brother is pacing right in front of us.

“Yes but he is weak and living on unicorn’s blood,” my twin says as he takes off his tie. My fear is replaced for with anger at the mention of the unicorns being killed but disappears again when my brother continues to talk, “Don’t you see?!? We got it wrong. Snape isn’t stealing the stone for himself, he wants it for Voldemort. With the Elixir of Life, he can come back.” My brother sighs before plopping down on the armrest. Worry bubbles up at the idea that he might come back and I get up to stand next to my big brother. I place my hand on his shoulder and he gives me a weak smile.

“Do you think that if he comes back…he will kill you?” Ron asks and I tighten my grip on his shoulder. My big brother must have seen how frighten I am by that thought because he pulls me to sit next to him on the arm chair. Unfortunately, there isn’t that much room on a arm chair for two people but we are thin enough were we can just make it.

“I think that if he had the opportunity he would have done so that night,” my twin says and I whimper slightly at the thought. First, I recently found out that I shouldn’t have survived birth and now I learn that my twin almost got killed a few days prior. Harry hugs me as I lean into his side and I try to reassure myself that I have nothing to worry about. I feel a hand rubbing my back and I look up to see that it is Hermione.

“Hang on we are forgetting one thing. Who is the one wizard that Voldemort has always feared?” she asks us and a light bulb appears above my head, figuratively. I grab my notepad from the coffee table and I write down the answer. After finishing the name, I flip it around and show it to everyone. Hermione smiles at me before nodding her head, “Yes, Anastasia is correct. It is Dumbledore and as long as Dumbledore is around, Harry you are safe. As long as Dumbledore is around you cannot be touched.”

A peaceful smile appears on my face as I process her words. I look up at my brother and I notice that he also has a slight smile on his face. I think about everything that has happened lately but one thing is for sure. That horrible man that killed my parents is out there right now and he almost got my brother as well. All of this new information is making my body and mind drain out of energy. A yawn escapes my lips and I cover my mouth with my hand. Nudging my brother, I indicate that I’m going to head back to the Slytherin commons and he nods his head while hugging me goodbye. I hug my best friend next and I give the Weasel a handshake.

As I am walking throughout the halls toward the Slytherin house. So far I have not been caught by any of the teachers that are patrolling the halls at night. Another yawn escapes my lips as I walk past the entrance hall. Unfortunately, the more I walk while being tired the more likely chance that I’m going to fall flat on my face. I don’t realize that until right as I give another yawn and I accidently trip on the hard floor. Giving a shriek, which in hind sight probably wasn’t a good idea, I close my eyes while holding my hands out in front of me. Weirdly enough, no pain followed the fall but actually a soft thud took the place instead. A pair of laughter makes me open my eyes and directly in front of me is a chest with its arms around my waist.

“You must be-,”

“Really tired to almost-,”

“Fall on your face,” a pair of semi-masculine voices finish each others sentences. I look up to see my new prankster friends with ginger hair looking down at me while still laughing. Smiling, I wave at them as the one holding me, which if I’m correct is George, helps me back on my feet. I yawn again and they look at each other before they grab my arms. I give them a questioning look and they must have noticed because Fred answers me.

“We are your friends-,”

“And we are also gentlemen-,”

“We cannot allow for our friend-,”

“Who is a girl-,”

“To walk back to her dormitory at night by herself,” Fred finishes and I nod my head at their reasoning. They escort me down to the dungeons and we stop in front of the Slytherin commons. I look up at the two boys with a smile on my face while also being grateful that these two pranksters are my friends. Happiness and gratitude seep through my very core which explains my next actions. Getting onto my tippy toes, I kiss them both on their cheeks before pulling my arms away from them. Giving them one last smile, I turn around and walk through the painting doorway. As the painting closes, I hear Fred whisper something to George but I couldn’t hear what they said. Shrugging my shoulders, I head up to the girls’ dormitory to get some good nights sleep.

The next afternoon, I am walking outside with Draco and we both let out a sigh of relief. We have just finished the last of our tests for the year. Even though I love to read and I have studied for the tests with Hermione, I still get jittery. I think Draco gave a sigh of relief because he didn’t really study for the tests. Smiling, I grab his hand and start to swing them. He smiles at me but our friendly moment is ruined when I feel a push from behind me. Our hands are pulled apart when fall to the ground on my hands and knees. Slightly tearing up, I quickly turn my head back and I notice that a girl with medium length black hair is standing next to Draco with a smile on her face. She looks familiar but I just can’t place her. Looking at her green tie and her cloak, I can assume that she is also in Slytherin.

“Pansy! Why did you do that?!” Draco exclaims at the black-haired girl while helping me up from the ground. After I get back on my feet, my best friend checks my arms and legs to make sure that I’m alright. There is a few scrapes on my hands and a couple on my right knee. He touches them but I jump back from the stinging feeling.

“Whoops, I didn’t see you there,” she says while she still has a smirk on her face. I know that she isn’t telling the truth but being the better person, I nod my head while giving her a small smile before focusing on my wounds. I don’t understand why she would hurt me all of a sudden. I mean, I haven’t even met her or anything until now.

“Draci! Why don’t you spend any time with me?” the girl, who is named Pansy, whines at Draco. He rolls his eyes as he is looking at me which makes me smile with laughter. Draco turns toward the girl and they start to talk to each other. I look over around and I notice that Hermione, my brother, and the Weasel are rushing towards Hagrid’s hut. Tugging on Draco’s sleeve, I point at Hagrid’s hut when he looks over at me. He gives me a look of ‘please, don’t leave me alone with her’ but he also nods his head at me. Giving him a sympathetic pat on the back, I limp my way over to the hut as Hagrid is telling something to my brother and our friends.

“-Of course he was interested in Fluffy! How likely are you to come upon a three-headed dog even if you are in the trade. I told him, ‘The trick on how to tame any beast is to know how to calm them. Take Fluffy for an example just play a little bit of music and he will fall straight to sleep.’” I stop next to my brother and Hermione. We all look at each other as I put pressure on my left leg. Who just tells a complete stranger how to take down the first protector that protects the Sorcerer’s Stone? Hagrid’s face scrunches up in a ‘oh, no’ expression as he says, “I shouldn’t have told you that.”

We run off towards Professor McGonagall’s classroom. Unfortunately, half-way there my body starts to grow tired while the pain from the scrapes grow and makes me bite my lip. Honestly, I don’t even know why we are going to Professor McGonagall but I’m just going to follow along with them.

By the time that we arrive at her office, I am wheezing while trying to not faint. I think this is exactly what Professor Snape was talking about when he said that I’ll grow exhausted when doing physical exertion. I limp over to one of the desks and I sit down while my brother is asking for Dumbledore. McGonagall explains that Professor Dumbledore isn’t here because he got an urgent message from the Ministry of Magic and he left for London this morning. My eyes widen as I realize that whoever is going to steal the Stone is going to steal it tonight.

“Now, but this is important! It is about The Sorcerer’s Stone!” my brother says and I notice that my transfiguration teacher’s eyes widen behind her glasses. Harry apparently doesn’t notice her reaction, “Someone is going to try and steal it!”

“I don’t know who you four found out about the stone, but I assure you that it is perfectly protected. Now, why don’t you four go back to your dormitories, quietly,” she says and shoos us away with her hand. My brother, Ron and Hermione have their heads hung down low and start to head out of the classroom. Sadly, I am still wheezing and my exhaustion is taking over my body almost completely. With the last bit of strength I have left, I push my body out of the seat and walk slowly behind my friend. The exhaustion is overtaking all of my other emotions even the pain.

We stop in the middle of the corridor and my brother starts to talk about his ‘Snape is the one behind all of this’ rant while I try to not faint. My body has never gotten this tired before but I think it is because just a few days ago I just woke up from my three day coma. I believe that my body is still recovering from the Forbidden Forest incident and it is definitely not happy with all of this running around. In the background, I hear Hermione start to say something about Dumbledore being gone when she is interrupted by someone.

“Good evening, everyone,” Snape drawls behind us. While everyone else is turning around to look at him, I lean against the cement block wall as I continue to keep my body awake. He stops for a second before he continues the conversation, “Why would three Gryffindors and a Slytherin like yourselves be doing indoors on a day like this.” No one says anything back and I continue to find some strength within me to turn around. A few seconds pass before Hermione tries to stutter out an explanation, but he stops her, “Careful! It would almost seem like you are up to something…”

“P-P-Professor? Please, hel-help me,” I whisper through my mind to his. A firm hand grasps my shoulder and I almost slip down the wall but the professor’s hand keeps me from falling. He turns me around and takes my paleness into consideration before he sighs.

“After our last conversation, you decided that the best thing to do was to run around the school,” he drawls and I nod my head with a painfilled smile. Professor Snape takes notice of the pain and looks down at my right leg. Looking back up at me, he supports me as he starts leading us toward the hospital wing, “Come, silly girl. Madam Pomfrey will take care of your wounds while you can rest for a little bit.”

I nod my head while giving a backwards wave towards the rest of the group. Apparently, no one follows us because I don’t hear anyone following us. We walk in silence for a little bit as we past windows that are letting in sunlight into the corridor.

“Did you h-hear my brother’s th-thoughts?” I ask him in his mind to break this silence. He nods his head but doesn’t break his stride.

“Yes, he doesn’t hide his thoughts but I’m curious as to how he found out about the Sorcerer’s Stone,” he says and I sigh while I play back how we found out about the Sorcerer’s Stone, minus sneaking into the Restricted Section. He nods his head and we finally reach the doors to the hospital wing.

“Do you think that I’m trying to steal the stone?” he asks me as he helps me onto one of the hospital beds. I shake my head while choosing my words carefully.

“I never thought that you were the one behind taking the Stone. Honestly, I think it is someone that we would never expect because those are the most dangerous people.”

“How are they dangerous people?”

I smile as I lean forward a little bit before whispering in his head, “Because they are the ones that are basically invisible and can go around this entire castle without being seen.” Leaning back into the bed, I close my eyes and finally allow my exhaustion to consume my mind. I feel like the ending is coming and with that ending to this Sorcerer’s Stone madness there will be danger. Will I…be…..ready….for that………………dan..ger?


	15. Trials

Thankfully, I didn’t sleep for another three days, instead, I woke up just in time for dinner. Sluggishly, I get up from the hospital bed and made my way towards the dining hall. I don’t understand why everything must be so far apart! Literally, for ten minutes I wander around the halls before I finally found the moving staircases. For Godric's sake, there better be some food still there when I get to the hall! I stop dead in my tracks when I memory came into my mind. The person who is after the stone will try taking it tonight! A gasp escapes my lips as I quickly pick up my pace. I will not allow for this stunt to happen when this school has done so much for me without even trying. This school gave me friends, nice people, and the opportunity to see my brother smile.

By the time I reach the dining hall people are finishing their dinner and moving on to desserts. Smiling at Draco for a split second, I walk over to the Gryffindor table and over to my brother. I smile at Hermione before focusing all my attention on my brother.

“Are you going after the Sorcerer’s Stone tonight?” I ask him through the link. He looks at me and nods his head. While he is still sitting down, he hugs me around my stomach and I smile as I hug him back. “I am alright, big brother. I just needed some sleep that’s all. I’m going with you to protect the Sorcerer’s Stone.” He goes to protest but I stop him with a glance and he sighs before nodding his head.

“Fine, but you are going to stay near me,” my big brother says to me and I nod my head with a smile on my face. Hugging him one more time, I head over to the Slytherin table and sit next to my best friend. Unfortunately for the both of us, that Slytherin girl that pushed me earlier, Pansy I think, is sitting on the other side of Draco. She keeps trying to talk to Draco, but he just ignores her and starts to talk to me. Smiling, I would write down my replies, but I also try to involve Pansy into the conversations. I mean, yes, she pushed me and isn’t very nice but, maybe, I could make her my friend. It is, of course, the nice thing to do as well and maybe she is mean because that is the only way she knows how to make friends. Sadly, she gives me a glare before going back to her food and not even try talking to Draco again for the rest of the night.

For the rest of dinner, I debate internally if I should tell Draco about what I am going to do tonight, but I decided against it. I know that if I tell him about the Sorcerer’s Stone then he would totally be against me going with everyone else. After everyone turns in for the night, I wait until midnight before quietly getting out of my bed and head towards the dormitory door. Unfortunately, I can’t go very far because a noise stops me in my tracks. The noise almost sounds like someone is getting out of a creaky bed. Slowly turning around, I come face to face with the one and only Pansy.

“Where do you think you’re going, mute?” she spits at me and I step back in shock at the amount of hatred in her voice. I shrug before heading out of the dormitory. Hopefully, she will just go back to bed and not care about what I’m doing. Unfortunately, fate is against me at the moment and I hear her footsteps following behind me.

“Hey, don’t ignore me, freak!” she shrieks, and I sigh as I try to stay polite to this fellow girl. Stopping in front of the couch in the commons, I turn around to find Pansy an arm's length away from me. Her face is contorted in anger while I keep a friendly smile on my face.

“I bet you are going to see those stupid Gryffindors. How are you even in Slytherin? You are nothing but a mute who has no friends. I bet Draco is only your friend because he feels sorry for you,” Pansy smirks and my smile slowly disappears as she says each word. For some reason, I don’t feel anything. No anger and no sadness. Nothing but the emptiness that is quickly devouring my thinking process and leaving only her words echoing in my head. She has no right to say any of those things. A spell rises from the depths of my memories and without even thinking about it, I grab my wand from my wand holster. As if in a trance, my hand points my wand at this mean girl and say the spell in my head, “Obliviate!”

Walking out of the Slytherin house, I only take a few steps before falling to my knees. I can’t believe I just erased her current memories and just left her in the commons. Why did I do that? Maybe, she pushed me to my breaking point with all those hateful comments. Tears well up in my eyes, but I try to not focus on it. Oh! Who am I kidding?! That was a horrible thing to do and I did it without blinking an eye. I’m such a horrible person for doing that but she said such mean things! Before I can think further about what just happened, I can hear three pairs of footsteps heading towards my area. Standing up from the floor, I wait until I hear the footsteps stop in front of me.

“Are you ready, sister?” I hear Harry whisper to me as he takes the invisibility cloak off himself, Ron, and Hermione. Nodding my head while putting on a fake smile, I walk next to my brother as he places the cloak around all of us.

“Sorry that we are a little bit late. Neville Longbottom tried stopping us as we were leaving,” Hermione whispers to me as we walk throughout the halls of Hogwarts heading towards the third floor.

“Yeah, and she used a spell that made her scary for once,” Ron adds as he looks around scared. I pull on her sleeve while giving her a questioning look. She must have seen my look because she smiles at me while answering my question.

“I used the Petrificus Totalus spell to stun him for a while,” she says, and I nod my head while noting that spell for later use if needed. Honestly, after that spell that I did on Pansy, I am pretty tired, but I keep pinching myself awake.

A few minutes later we finally arrive at the right corridor on the third floor. Surprisingly, there is only one door in this corridor and I say surprisingly because there is usually either no doors or at least a handful of doors in one corridor. Trust me when I say after spending almost an entire year here I would notice if there are any hallways with only one door. I notice that Hermione is pulling out her wand to most likely say the unlocking spell but that is unnecessary because Harry just pulls the door open; the door isn’t even locked.

As the door is opening inwards, the soft harmonious music of a harp floats across the entire room before hitting our ears. A sigh escapes my lips as I enter the room and head towards the musical instrument that is in the right-handed corner of the room.

“Anastasia. Anastasia! You are supposed to stay by my side not go wandering off!” Harry whisper-yells at me, and I look down in shame as I walk away from the harp. I stand next to my big brother as I finally look at the giant animal in the center of the room that I surprisingly missed. I mean, how in Godric’s name did I not notice the giant three-headed black dog. Another thing that is surprising is that the dog is asleep. This must be Fluffy that Hagrid was talking about.

“Snape has already been here. He placed a spell on the harp,” my brother says, and I roll my eyes at his assumption. I still don’t think that he is the one behind this and that thought is even more enforced with the way that Snape handled himself earlier today. We walk towards the animal and unfortunately, its breath stinks to high heaven. I cover my nose with my hand as my friend comments on Fluffy’s breath.

“We are going to have to move his paw,” Harry says, and I look down to realize that Fluffy’s paw is on top of the trap door. Nodding my head, I grab the paw with everyone else following suit. With a lot of grunting coming from all of us, we slide the paw off the trap door. Harry yanks the trap door wide open and I look up to make sure that Fluffy is still asleep. Sighing in relief, I watch as Harry, Ron, and Hermione crouch in front of the drop.

“I’ll go first but I don’t want you guys to follow me until I give you a sign,” my twin says and my heart catches in my throat. Clenching my hand into his shoulder as he continues his thought, “If something bad happens I want you to get yourselves out of here. This goes for you as well, sister.”

I shake my head as I hold onto his shoulder. Sighing, he looks at me with a stern look that should make me back down, but I don’t. I will not leave my twin alone in a dangerous situation. Before he can scowl me, I interrupt him, “Big brother, you can save your breath because I’m not changing my mind. You are my twin and that means we stick together no matter what.” As I let those words sink in, a silence befalls us and for some reason that is strange. It takes me a minute to realize why that is strange and my whole body stiffens up in fear. The harp has stopped playing music which means that Fluffy is going to wake up.

“Does it seem quiet to you?” Harry says as his face scrunches up in curiosity. I frantically nod my head while pointing towards the golden harp that is as still as a mummy’s tomb. Ron and Hermione nodded their heads as well before also looking at the harp. Right as I glance back at the group, I notice a giant drop of drool falls on Ron’s shoulder. If it isn’t for the dangerous situation that we are in right now, I would be laughing my butt off at the Weasel’s misfortune. The Weasel’s face drowns in fear as he looks up towards the ceiling. Very slowly, I look up towards the now three-headed dog that is standing over us with its teeth bared. Gulping, I start to scream inside my head while my brother covers his ears from the screaming. He looks over at me before looking up at Fluffy. Hermione is the last person to realize that there is no turning back now. As my brother screams for us to jump, the dog starts barking which is too loud for my sensitive ears. While everyone else jumps through the trap entrance, I close my eyes and fall to my knees at the loud barking. Thankfully, before they could bite me I end up falling through the entrance as I continue to have my eyes close.

I scream in my head as I feel the air rush past me. At first, my eyes are closed because of the loud barking but now they are closed because of the fear that is coursing through me. After falling for a few feet, I land on a soft yet hard ground. I slowly open my gold eyes as I feel around the ground with my hands. Let me just say that this is the weirdest floor that I have ever felt. Looking at the “floor’’ that I’ve fallen on, I realize that it isn’t a floor at all but really smooth black vines that are covering the ground. As I start to move around the vines, I feel something slither around my legs and hold them down very tightly. What in Salazar’s name is going on?! I continue to move around but with more frantic motions to the movement.

“Anastasia, Ron! You need to stop moving!” Hermione yells at us and I realize that she is no longer with us. I turn my head to realize that my brother is also gone. Of course, seeing this makes me more fearful but I trust my other best friend. Taking a deep breath, I force my body to stay very still and relax my limbs. The vines slowly wrap around my body and I can feel myself being lowered through the vines. As I take a deep breath, I hear Ron become more frantic and I almost want to laugh at him being scared. I know that laughing at other people is a mean thing to do but him being scared is hilarious. Before I can think further on Ron, I feel myself fall again and land on something hard.

“Are you okay, sister?” my brother asks me as he helps me up. I nod my head while giving him a smile and I realize that Ron is freaking out above the vines.

“He isn’t going to relax, is he?” Hermione asks us, and I nod my head while looking through the vines.

“Come on, Hermione. You must know something to help him,” Harry says, and I look over at my friend. I would help but I haven’t been paying attention in Herbology class. In my opinion, Herbology is kind of boring and I prefer potions class or Defense Against the Dark Arts.

“I remember reading in Herbology, ‘Devil’s Snare, Devil’s Snare. Its deadly fun…but will sulk in the sun! That’s it! Devil’s Snare hates sunlight!” Hermione shouts in excitement! Smiling at my friend’s brilliance, I take out my wand and point it at the Devil’s Snare.

“Lumus Solem!” I shout in my mind and sunlight pours out of the tip of my wand. The plant shrieks out in pain and fear before retreating into dark corners of the room. In the process of retreating, the plant instantly lets go of the Weasel which makes him fall flat on his face. “Is he okay, brother?” I ask through the link as I walk over to the groaning ginger.

“Are you alright, Ron?” my twin asks his friend. The Weasel says he is okay as I help him back to his feet. After he is standing on his own two feet, he tries to play it off like he wasn’t just screaming his head off.

“We’re lucky that we didn’t panic,” he says as he looks up at the leftover Devil’s Snare. I give him a blank look as I smack the back of his head. He looks at me with hatred clearly evident on his face, but my brother pulls his attention away from me.

“We’re lucky that Hermione pays attention in Herbology,” he says with a deadpanned look. I nod my head while smiling at friend and giving her a hug for a job well done on her part. I can feel her smile as she hugs me back. Unfortunately, my brother breaks the moment by telling us that we need to keep moving or Snape will get the Sorcerer’s Stone. Sighing, I release my friend and we move onto the next room.

As we continue towards the next room, I start to think about who could possibly be behind this whole ordeal and is working for Voldemort. I know for a fact that it must be a teacher at the school because no student from the first year to the seventh year could possibly have the knowledge and skill to get past all of these obstacles. Well, I mean we four are going through all of this and we are only in our first year. Except, we have Hermione, who is the smartest witch in this school, and there is four of us. No student can do all of this by themselves, even us. This is another reason that it is a teacher, but which teacher is it.

“What is that sound?” Hermione’s voice breaks me out of my contemplation and I instead focus on listening to my surroundings. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that what we are hearing is the sound of hundreds of little wings flapping around behind the door that is in front of us. I whisper what I think to my brother through the link and he nods his head.

“It definitely sounds like wings flapping,” my brother says, and we slowly open the wooden door. We step into the cold cement room with the door slamming shut behind us. I jump at the loud noise and I feel my brother’s arms wrap around my shoulders. The flapping of the wings grows louder as odd-looking birds fly around the room.

“This is very curious! I’ve never seen any birds like these before,” Hermione says, and I nod my head in agreement. My brother shakes his head and my curiosity rises even higher when he explains himself.

“Those are not birds,” my brother says and my eyebrows furrow in confusion. Walking a little bit closer, I realize that indeed those are not birds but enchanted skeleton keys. Each key is in a different size and looks different than the last. Taking an even closer look, I also notice that each key is either made out of brass, silver, or gold.

“They’re keys, big brother,” I exclaim to him in his mind. He nods his head while letting go of my shoulders. I kind of want to reach out and touch one of them, but I restrain myself because I know that it will not end well if I do.

“Exactly! They are keys and I’ll bet that one of them fits that door,” he says as he smiles at me but then turns serious as he continues to stare at the keys. At the same time that my brother notices it, I notice that there is a broom right in front of us, which is below all of the flying keys. Ron takes out his wand and walks over to the wooden door with Hermione following behind him. My brother and I walk over to the old looking broom. He looks at me and whispers, “This is very strange, sister.” I nod my head in agreement while waving my hand over the broomstick to make sure that there aren’t any traps connected to it.

“Alohomora!” the Weasel shouts but the door stays locked up tight. I can see his shoulders sag in disappointment before turning around and noticing that we are all staring at him. Most likely, Hermione is giving him an exasperated look because he gets all defense at us, “Well, it was worth a try!”

“What are we going to do?! There must be a thousand keys!” Hermione almost shouts as she looks at all of us. I nod my head while looking up at all of the keys. “We want a big, old-fashioned one. Probably rusty.” We all look up and start to hunt for the correct key. After observing two different keys, I notice an odd key out. All of the keys are old looking, but this one is the largest key and it has slight rust on the silver metal body. What catches my eye is that one of the wings is broken. This has to be the key that we need. It would only make sense that the key that everyone uses has it’s wing broken because people actually use it. Pulling on Harry’s sleeve, I point up at the key and he smiles at me while giving me a side hug.

“Good job, sister,” he says while kissing my head. I smile up at him, but it quickly turns into a frown when I realize that he doesn’t look happy. I nudge him in the side while giving him a frown of my own. He gives me a slight smile before saying, “I’m sorry, sister, but this seems too simple.”

“Oh, come on, Harry! If Snape can get that key using that old broomstick than so can you. You’re the youngest seeker in a century!” Ron tries to encourage my brother. I eagerly nod my head at his words before giving Harry’s hand a squeeze of encouragement. He nods his head at us and pushes me towards Hermione. After making sure that I’m safe with the others, Harry looks down at the broomstick before grabbing the handle.

Right as my brother grabs the broom, the keys start to make an agitated noise that makes me cover my ears. Looking up, I watch as the keys start flying faster before diving towards my brother. They start trying to attack him and I cover my face in Hermione’s shoulder. I can’t watch as my brother does something so dangerous just to get a key. After a minute of hiding, I can hear Hermione above all of the keys telling me to look up. With some hesitation, I look up to see my brother being chased by the keys while at the same time trying to grab the key that we need. It almost looks like one of his Quidditch games where he tries grabbing the snitch. After chasing the key for a solid minute, he finally catches it and throws it towards us as he flies by. Jumping up, I snatch the key up and rush towards the door. I can feel the others behind me and I quickly unlock the door. We hold the door open long enough for my brother to quickly fly through before we close the door on the keys. The loud thumping of the keys hitting the door makes us all realize that things could have been a lot worse.

Rushing over to my brother, I start to look him over to make sure that he is alright and doesn’t have any wounds. After realizing that he isn’t injured, I quickly pull him into a hug just to confirm that he is actually alright. While we are hugging, I can hear his chuckle and he pulls me closer.

“I’m alright, sister. After a few Quidditch matches, this is nothing compared to those,” he says as a way of easing tension. I’ll admit that he is right in that regard because that sport is a really dangerous game to play. Nodding my head, I finally release him from the hug before looking at the other two people. Slightly embarrassed at my display of worry, I shuffle behind Harry and I can hear my best friend laugh at my actions. Not wanting to be even more embarrassed, I quickly grab my brothers hand and start to drag him towards the next area.

There are no lights in the giant room that we enter. In the darkness, I can kind of make out some stone looking figures. My slip-on shoes start clicking against the smooth floor below us. Looking down at the ground, I notice that the floor is a smooth marble, but as I continue to stare at the floor I realize that the floor is checkered.

“Are we in a graveyard?” Hermione asks as she notices the stone statues as well. I shake my head as Ron answers her.

“This is no graveyard,” he tells her, and she gives him an annoyed look. The Weasel ignores her and surprisingly he walks in front of us. Ron looks around before he says something that makes a chill go up my spine, “It’s a chessboard.” Right as he finishes that sentence, fires light up all around the chessboard. I hear a click behind us and I look back to see that the large double doors behind us have closed. Looking back at the chess pieces, I realize that the pieces closest to us are black while the pieces on the other side of the room are white.

“Look there is the door!” my brother points out. I look through the pieces to realize that the door is right behind there. We start to walk towards the door, but right as we walk in front of the white pawns they pull out their swords and block our path with a loud ‘clang’. We slowly back away from them when we realize that they can hurt us.

“What are we going to do?” Hermione asks and Ron steps up before looking at us.

“Isn’t it obvious? We are going to have to play our way across the room,” he tells us and sweat start to appear on my forehead. I don’t know about Hermione, but I absolutely have no clue how to play chess. I don’t even know the name of the pieces other than a pawn. Ron turns his attention on my brother, “Harry, I want you to take the empty bishop’s square.” The ginger skips me and looks at my brunette friend, “Hermione, you’ll be the queen-side castle.” Finally, he turns to me and looks like he is thinking about it for a second. After a minute of thinking, he says to me, “Anastasia, you’ll be on the queen’s square.” I nod my head while looking at the pieces, trying to figure out which one is the queen. “I’ll be a knight.” We all start to head to our correct spots, but I stop my brother while asking him which one is the queen. He takes me to the spot and walks over to his bishop square.

Once we are all in our spots, I watch as one of the white pawns move a few squares forward.

“You don’t think this is going to be like real wizard’s chess, do you?” Hermione gulps at the end of her sentence. Ron looks at her for a second for telling one of the pawns to move in front of the white pawn. Right as our black pawn arrives at the center of the board, the white pawn takes out its swords and destroys our pawn. My mouth drops open when I realize that this is going to be a real hazard to my health.

“Yes, Hermione. I think that this is going to be exactly like wizard’s chess,” Ron replies to Hermione’s original question. I notice that she is as stiff as a board when she looks at the ginger.

What happens afterward, I honestly don’t remember or understand. I just remember Ron shouting out orders to us and the pieces follow them. Then there was a lot of destruction and we only have a few pieces left. The white king destroys our last castle which is right in front of my brother. I hold myself still as I watch my brother cover himself from the debris. I finally release the breath that I was holding, when my brother stands back up and looks at the white king. Slowly, the white king turns around to stare at the Weasel on the black horse; He is the only knight left.

“Wait a minute…” my brother starts to say but he doesn’t finish his sentence.

“You understand right, Harry,” Ron says, and I realize that something is going on here. From looking over at Hermione, I notice that she looks as stumped as I most likely do. We look at the two boys until Ron continues explaining his plan, “Once, I make my move, the queen will take me. Then you are free to check the king.”

“No!” my brother shouts while us girls are looking on in confusion. Hermione finally asks my brother what is happening and looks at her briefly before answering her, “He’s going to sacrifice himself!” I start to shake my head no frantically, while Hermione voices our opinion out. Even though Ron has been mean to me and made my brother go against me for a little bit, but at the end of the day, he is my brother’s best friend. He makes my brother laugh and gives him company. The Weasel isn’t always mean to me and he isn’t anything like Pansy. I can truthfully say that I cannot wish for him to sacrifice himself for the rest of us. Well, I can never wish this upon anyone, but I definitely cannot wish this upon this ginger.

“Do you want to stop Snape from getting to the Stone or not? This is the only way that you can get past the chess pieces and on through the door. Harry, you are the only one that needs to go on. Not me, not Hermione, you,” he shouts towards my older brother. Slowly, Harry nods his head at his friend’s words and I nod my head slowly as well. Ron is right for the most part, but he is wrong about one thing. I will be going with my brother. I’ve already told him that we are twins and we stick together no matter the situation. Hopefully, he hasn’t forgotten what I told him or I’m just going to climb onto his back and not let go. I’ve done it before to make sure that we stay together, and I’ll just do it again.

“Knight to H-3,” Ron’s voice breaks out of my daydreaming. I notice that his eyes are closed very tightly and the horse piece that he is on is moving a couple squares forward then moves a couple squares to the right until he is right in front of the queen. The king turns around and slides over to the Ron. I can hear my heart beating in my ears as I watch the piece get closer to the ginger on the horse. As the white piece stops in front of Ron’s piece, I watch as the piece takes its sword and plunges it into the horse’s side making Ron fall off with a scream.

“Ron!” big brother shouts, and I start to walk towards the unconscious ginger, but my brother stops me before I can step out of the square, “Don’t move! Remember that we are still playing a game.” Sighing with worry, I watch as my brother steps up towards the white king and looks at it with determination in his eyes, “Checkmate!” The sword falls out of the grasp of the royal piece and falls to the floor in front of my twin. After the sword stays still on the ground, we all run towards the unconscious Weasel.

“I want you to take care of Ron. Then go to the owlery and send a message to Dumbledore. Ron’s right, I have to go alone,” my brother tells us. I frown at his last sentence. He is not going alone no matter how much he wants to, I’m not going to allow it.

“You’ll be okay, Harry. You’re a great wizard! You really are,” Hermione tells him.

“I’m not as good as you or my sister,” he replies but we both shake our heads.

“Me? With my books and cleverness. There is more important things like friendship and bravery. Harry, be careful!” Hermione says to him. He nods his head before looking at me.

“Harry, big brother, you are a great wizard. Yes, I might be better at spells than you, but you have something that I don’t. You have the courage of the Gryffindor lion while I only have the sneakiness of the Slytherin snake. If anyone can do this then that’s you, big brother,” I tell him through the mind link before standing up with him by my side. I smile at him while giving him a hug, “If you think that I’m going to allow you to go off by yourself, big brother, then you have another thing coming.”

“No, I cannot have you go with me,” Harry says as he pulls away from the hug. I shake my head before putting my hands on my hips.

“Harry, remember what I said earlier? You are my twin and we have been together since the womb. I’m not going to let you go off on a dangerous mission without me by your side. We have been through so much together and this is going to add to it. I love you, big brother and I’m coming along to protect you with all of the magic inside of me,” I tell him, and I can feel angry tears falling down my face. This is one of those times where I don’t need his protection but actually, need his support. He continues to stare into my eyes before finally nodding his head.

“Alright, alright. Come on, Anastasia,” he says while grabbing my hand. I nod my head while wiping away my tears with my sleeve that is covered with dust. We head off towards the person that is behind all of this. Who is the dangerous person waiting for us down below?


	16. Confronting the Enemy

With my brother’s hand in mine, we descend the cold hard stairs towards the person that has been trying to get the stone this whole school year. From the way that there is a continuous fluttering of wings in my stomach, I can honestly say that I am nervous to my very core. Trust me when I say that having that constant feeling of wanting to vomit isn’t very pleasant. This feeling its self isn’t very good but it’s even worse when you are getting closer to a person that will potentially try to kill you. No matter how much I want to turn back, I keep moving forward because I will not allow my twin brother to do this by himself.

Right as we reach the landing, which is in-between two staircases, I can hear my brother take in a sharp breath while hissing in pain. Quickly looking over, I notice that he has his red sweater covered hand raised toward his scar and the realization that his scar is hurting him again. I squeeze his hand and quietly ask him through the link if he is alright. Harry doesn’t turn his attention away from in front of us, but he does nod his head slightly. Still worried about him, I turn my attention back onto the figure standing in the center of the room in front of the Mirror of Erised. Well, I guess we know where Professor Dumbledore put the mirror after talking to us. As we are stepping down the stairs toward the center of the oval room, I realize that the figure definitely isn’t Professor Snape.

“You?” my brother says to the figure and Professor Quirrell turns around to look at us. I knew it! I knew that it wasn’t going to be the obvious professor but a professor that nobody would ever suspect. Personally, I can safely say that I would never have thought of the nervous and always stuttering Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. That is definitely my fault that I didn’t even think about him when thinking of suspects. He was just so forgettable that I honestly didn't even think about this professor being the traitor. My brother’s voice makes me pop out of my stupidity, “No, it can’t be. Snape, he was the-.”

“Yes, he does seem the type, doesn’t he?” Quirrell says without stuttering. My eyebrows disappear in my hair line when I realize that he was fake stuttering this entire time. I’ll give him credit though, he went through this entire school year with a fake stutter and fooled everybody. Realizing what he just said about my head of the house, a frown appears on my face as I try to keep myself from becoming too angry. “Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, s-s-stuttering Professor Quirrell?” Okay, this guy is officially starting to get on my nerves and that’s saying something. Professor Snape in my opinion isn’t that bad of a guy. I mean, yes, he isn’t the nicest guy around the school, but from the way he interacts with the headmaster makes me believe without any doubt that he wouldn’t go against him. Snape has too much respect for him.

“But that day, during the Quidditch match, Snape tried to kill me,” Harry is still in complete denial that Snape actually has nothing to do with this. Rolling my eyes, I focus on Quirrell’s every single move because if I get any clue that he has his wand, I’m going to surprise attack him. I know for a fact that I can’t actually hurt him, but I can still try to do something to protect us. Maybe, erase his memories and then bolt out of the room.

“No, dear boy. I tried to kill you!” Quirrell shouts and my anger is going into overdrive. This man tried to kill my big brother! Unlike the smart idea of taking out my wand and use some spells, my first instinct is to go the Muggle rout and try to attack him with my fists. With my blood starting to boil, I try to walk towards him, but my brother holds me back. “If Snape’s cloak hadn’t caught fire and broken my eye contact I would have succeeded! Even with Snape muttering his little countercurse.”

Okay, now he has done it! I start to thrash around even more, and a look of pure hatred is permanent on my face. While trying to get away from my brother, I notice a smirk starting to form on that stupid man’s face.

“Well, if you find this so amusing why don’t you come over here and meet my fists!” I growl in my mind before shoving it into his. I don’t know if that will work but I do it anyway. Unfortunately, his behavior doesn’t change so I’m going to assume that my thoughts didn’t reach this horrible man.

“I should have gotten rid of you first, girl. You would have been a lot easier to get rid of,” he says, and my body instantly freezes at his words, “You wouldn’t have been able to scream or fight against me. Unfortunately, I wanted to save the easiest one for last.” H-He is right…. I would have been easier to kill. I can’t even speak let alone scream. My anger is slowly disappearing with fear taking over. I can feel my brother pull me closer to him as he talks again.

“B-But I don’t understand! Snape tried to save me? Why did you try to kill me? Us?” Harry calls to him while I breathe in heavily from all the exertion. My body is slowly starting to get tired, but I force myself to not focus on the tiredness. Even though I am more afraid of Quirrell than I am angry, I continue to glare at him while keeping my hand close to where my wand is.

“I knew you two were a danger to me, especially after Halloween. Well, in the very least I knew that you were a danger to me.”

“Then he must have let the troll in, big brother!” I say through the link and my brother repeats my prediction.

“Very good, Potter, yes. Snape, unfortunately, wasn’t fooled,” Quirrell instantly gets a scowl on his face at the mention of the potion master. My lips slightly twitch in a smirk when I quickly realize that he must have heard Quirrell’s thoughts. “While everyone ran about, he went to the third floor to head me off. He, of course, never trusted me again,” he states as he turns toward the mirror. Of course, he wouldn’t have trusted him again! Only a fool would trust someone who let in the mountain troll and thought that he wouldn’t do it again! I mean, come on! Nobody is that low intelligent! Right before the man in the purple turban starts talking again, my brother hisses in pain again as he holds his scar. “He rarely left me alone, but he doesn’t understand. I’m never alone. Never.”

My brows furrow in confusion at his last words. Is he talking about his religion? No, that can’t be it because he doesn’t seem like the type that would have a religion. After a minute of guessing why he said that, my mind comes up with a blank and I internally just shrug my shoulders.

“Now, what does this mirror do?” the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher asks as he gives his full attention to the mirror. A few seconds pass before he inhales a gasp, “I see what I desire! I can see myself holding the stone, but how do I get it?” His attitude is getting more frustrated and less patient.

“Use the boy!” a raspy voice echoes throughout the room making my brother and I look around the room. Unfortunately, all I can see is the cement walls, stairs, and the pillars that keep the ceiling up. I don’t see anyone else. The professor quickly spins around before raising his hand up to us.

“Come here, Potter! Now!” he shouts and my fear spikes at the anger inside his voice. Yet, at the same time my own anger is starting to rise again. Realizing that my brother is starting to go to the mirror, I grab his arm and pull him back towards me. I frantically shake my head from side to side as I keep glaring at the adult male. Harry grabs my hand again and pulls me along with him as he walks toward the Mirror of Erised again. Keeping my eyes on Quirrell the whole time, I can feel my fear and anger levels rise as we get closer to him. Right as we are in front of the mirror, my body is almost at the level of “fight or flight” and I’m kind of leaning towards fighting him. “Tell me, what do you see?”

As my brother is looking into the mirror, I notice that the adult is completely focused on him. Taking my chance, I slowly move away from them both and go behind the mirror. Thankfully, neither of them noticed that I have disappeared, and I take the opportunity to take a quiet deep breath in. Okay, now is my chance to come up with a plan to get my brother and I out of this situation. I mean, for goodness sake I am in Slytherin! I can come up with a plan to be sly and sneaky. Think, think, think!

“What is it? What do you see?” Quirrell’s shout startles me making me jump slightly. Keeping my breath slow and even, I listen to my brother’s response as I continue to come up with a plan.

“I’m shaking hands with Dumbledore! I’ve won the house cup,” my twin’s responds to him. From the shaking and stuttering in his voice, I know that my brother is lying, and my mind briefly stops to think about what he actually saw.

“He lies! Use the girl to get him to talk,” the voice whispers throughout the room again. At the mention of me, I stop breathing for a second before I continue to stay as quiet as possible. The rustling of cloth makes my eyes widen and I start to pray that he doesn’t look behind the mirror.

“Girl! Where are you?” he shouts, and I cover my mouth with my hand to keep my breathing as quiet as possible. Instead of actually looking for me, I hear a little bit more rustling before a grunt is coming from him, “It seems, Potter, that your own sister would abandon you.” I frantically shake my head and hope that my brother knows that I would never do that. Before anything else is said, the disembodied voice appears again but this time it sounds like it has had enough.

“Let me speak to him,” the voice says, and I realize that I’m about to meet the person that somehow knows when someone is a lie. I wonder if this person has the same ability as Professor Snape. No, if that is the truth then the person would know that I am still here.

“Master, you are not strong enough,” I hear Professor Quirrell’s submissive voice say, but the voice doesn’t listen to his servant.

“I have strength enough for thisssss,” the person says, and I notice that his sentence ends like a snake hissing. Taking the chance, I quietly sneak my head out from behind the mirror, and I watch as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher slowly unwind his turban from around his head. Seeing some movement out of the corner of my eye, I look over to see my brother looking frightened while stepping back towards the staircase. Feeling bad that I left him alone, I turn back towards the adult and realize that he is taking the last part off his head. Moving my head towards behind the mirror again, I can’t believe my eyes as I see a second face on the back of Quirrell’s head. My heartbeat quickens as I hide behind the mirror again. Oh, my Godric! How is that possible?!

“Harry Potter,” the voice, person, face says, and I can feel frightened tears are cascading down my face. Now, I am truly sorry that I left my brother alone, but I thought I was doing the right thing. The voice breaks me out of my guilt, but is quickly replaced with even more fear, “…we meet again.” There is only one person that would be meeting us again.

“Voldemort,” Harry whispers and my blood runs cold. Gulping down my fear and saliva, I slowly inch my face around the mirror, so I can peek to see what is going on. The first thing that I notice is that Voldemort’s face is watching my brother through the mirror.

“Yessss. You see what I’ve become? See what I must do to survive? Live off another. A mere parasite. Unicorn blood may sustain me, but it cannot give me a body of my own. There is something, however, that can. That something is, conveniently enough, lies in your pocket,” Voldemort says, and my brother looks even more alarmed. Quickly looking down towards his pocket, he turns around and starts to rush for the stairs that lead out of the room. Cheering him on in my mind, I watch him take a few steps before I realize that if he leaves I’ll be all alone with Voldemort, the most dangerous man of all time. Before I could worry about that more, I hear Voldemort shout at Quirrell, “No! Stop him!”

As my brother is rushing up the stairs, I watch as Quirrell snaps his fingers and fire appears all around the room making it impossible for anyone to escape. Unfortunately, the fires roaring to life out of no where makes a small shriek escape my lips, and I quickly duck behind the mirror again. At this point my heart is beating so fast that I might actually have a heart attack.

“Don’t be a fool. Why suffer a horrific death when you can join me and live?” Voldemort asks my brother and I frantically shake my head. My brother will never agree to joining the same man that killed our parents.

“Never!” Harry shouts and I smile knowing that I am correct. We may be children, but it doesn’t mean that we have low intelligence. Unfortunately, before I can think further I hear the bone chilling chuckle of the murderous man, well face.

“Bravery. Your parents had it too. Tell me, Harry, would you like to see your mother and father again? One big happy family with them and your sister. Together we can bring them back. Just give me the stone!” Voldemort tries to persuade my brother, and the offer is tempting. I mean, throughout my life I just wanted for my parents to be here. To be one big happy family. The offer is slowly losing its gleam when something he said struck me. He wants the stone and then he will become an entire being again. My brain starts shouting at me that he is a liar. This man has killed many people including my parents and I wouldn’t put it past him to lie.

“Brother! Don’t do this! He is lying to you. Mom and Dad would not want you to bring them back by giving him the stone,” I urgently say through the mind link as my body is starting to get drowsier from all of the emotions and stress from today. Shaking my head, I peek out from behind the mirror again and I watch with pride as my brother looks at the man with hatred.

“You liar!” my brother shouts, but instead of attacking my brother or anything, Voldemort’s eyes snap to me and I gasp in fear. As I start to duck behind the mirror again, I feel a firm hand grasp my forearm and yank me out of my hiding spot. A whimper escapes my lips as I try to get my arm free from Quirrell/Voldemort.

“Potter, give me the stone! Or your sister is going to die,” Voldemort shouts to my brother and my eyes widen even more. Making my moves more frantic, I shout for my brother through the link and I can see him moving closer in the mirror.

“Fine! I’ll give you the stone, but you have to leave my twin sister alone!” he says as he stops a few feet away from us. Not focusing on them, I continue to through my weight away from the despicable man when a burning starts to happen around my wrists. Hissing in pain, I glance down at my wrists to realize that it is those old looking bracelets that I got for Christmas are heating up. As they continue to heat up, I can feel courage and anger rising just as fast. With my fear disappearing, I look over at my brother and not struggle anymore. I realize that he is about to give Voldemort the Sorcerer’s Stone! Glaring, I look up at Quirrell’s face and decide to do what I have been wanting to do since I have arrived. With my right hand raised, I punch Professor Quirrell straight in the jaw sending his head straight back and his grip disappears from my arm as he touches his face.

Grabbing my big brother, we take a few steps away from Voldemort/Quirrell, and I look at my brother’s hand to, thankfully, see the stone. Smiling in relief, I focus back on the adult male and I realize that Voldemort has finally had enough.

“Kill them!” he shouts and Quirrell jumps into the air before gliding toward us. He wraps his hands around our necks and slams us into the stone steps behind us. Unfortunately, when my body met the steps, my head slams into them making my vision blur. Combine the blurry vision with the air circulation cut off, it isn’t a very good scenario. Starting to gasp in no air, I grab onto the arm and scratch at it hoping that the pain will make him get off me. As I start to black out from the lack of oxygen, I hear a faint sizzling from beside me, but I mostly hear my frantic heartbeat pounding in my ears. Some shouting is quickly followed by the sizzling and the hand around my neck is quickly taken away from my throat.

Sucking in air, I grab my throat as I cough at the soreness. My vision is still slightly blurry, but I can make out the figure of Quirrell a few feet away from us. As my air starts to come back, the pounding of my injured head makes me alternate between my throat and head. The muffled voice of Voldemort makes me whimper in fear, and I try to fold into myself to not get hurt more. Glancing up, I watch as my vision focuses again, and my brother rushes toward Quirrell. As he reaches the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Harry places his hands over Quirrell’s face and steam along with the sizzling noise appears underneath his hands. Looking closer, I realize that the professor’s, well ex-professor’s, skin is turning into dry dirt or clay. Quirrell is screaming in pain, but my brother doesn’t stop holding onto his face. I’ve never seen or read about magic that is anything like this. Finally, my brother pushes Quirrell/Voldemort away into a wall and his face is entire all cracked with some of it falling off. He isn’t shouting anymore nor, can he even see, but he still tries to get my brother. Quirrell reaches his arm out for my brother and starts to walk, but he doesn’t even step a few feet before he crumbles into dust with only his clothes left behind.

Big brother stands there staring at the remains of our old professor before another whimper of pain causes him to turn toward me. He rushes toward me and kneels in front of me.

“Sister, are you alright?” he asks, but I shake my head. Unfortunately, that only causes my throat to hurt more and that makes tears fall from all the pain. The tears are not only from the pain, but also from the relief that my brother defeated Voldemort again. He looks sad as he looks next to me and grabs the scarlet Sorcerer’s Stone. As if it is a peace offering, he gives me the stone and I give him a painfilled smile as I look down at the stone. “Sister, where are you hurt? The neck?”

“Y-Yes, but my head is also hurting from hitting the stairs,” I say through the link, and I can feel a slight pressure on my forehead as he kisses my head. Looking up at him, he gives me a sad smile before holding his hand out for me to take. Wiping my tears away, I grab his hand and let him help me up from the ground. Still feeling guilty about hiding behind the mirror, I hug him while repeating sorry over and over again.

“Why are you sorry? You didn’t do anything wrong,” he whispers as he hugs me back.

“B-But I hid and left you all alone. I thought that if I could hide from them then I could come up with a plan, but I couldn’t think of anything. I’m sorry, big brother,” I say in his mind as I continue to hold onto him.

“Anastasia, I know that you would never leave me. I understand that you thought that you were doing the right thing. I’m not mad or upset with you,” he says as he pulls away from the hug. He gives me a smile which makes me give a happy smile in return.

Unfortunately, our sibling moment is ruined when I notice something forming from the ashes of Quirrell. Pointing at the ash cloud, my brother looks over just in time to see the face of Voldemort appear in the cloud of ash making us both pale in fear. The dead soul of Voldemort starts screaming before rushing at us and ends up going through us. I can hear my brother yell as I scream in my head before we both fall and land against the cold stone floor. Big brother ends up getting knocked out while my head hits the floor for the second time, which makes me feel like my head is being split into two pieces. Just as I’m about to fall unconscious, I hear footsteps rushing down the stairs and heat diminishing from my face. Sadly, before I can see who it is I fall into unconsciousness with my twin brother. The last thought that passes through my mind is, “Did we do our parents proud?”


	17. Not an Ending, But Simply a Beginning

With my brother’s hand in mine, we descend the cold hard stairs towards the person that has been trying to get the stone this whole school year. From the way that there is a continuous fluttering of wings in my stomach, I can honestly say that I am nervous to my very core. Trust me when I say that having that constant feeling of wanting to vomit isn’t very pleasant. This feeling its self isn’t very good but it’s even worse when you are getting closer to a person that will potentially try to kill you. No matter how much I want to turn back, I keep moving forward because I will not allow my twin brother to do this by himself.

Right as we reach the landing, which is in-between two staircases, I can hear my brother take in a sharp breath while hissing in pain. Quickly looking over, I notice that he has his red sweater covered hand raised toward his scar and the realization that his scar is hurting him again. I squeeze his hand and quietly ask him through the link if he is alright. Harry doesn’t turn his attention away from in front of us, but he does nod his head slightly. Still worried about him, I turn my attention back onto the figure standing in the center of the room in front of the Mirror of Erised. Well, I guess we know where Professor Dumbledore put the mirror after talking to us. As we are stepping down the stairs toward the center of the oval room, I realize that the figure definitely isn’t Professor Snape.

“You?” my brother says to the figure and Professor Quirrell turns around to look at us. I knew it! I knew that it wasn’t going to be the obvious professor but a professor that nobody would ever suspect. Personally, I can safely say that I would never have thought of the nervous and always stuttering Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. That is definitely my fault that I didn’t even think about him when thinking of suspects. He was just so forgettable that I honestly didn't even think about this professor being the traitor. My brother’s voice makes me pop out of my stupidity, “No, it can’t be. Snape, he was the-.”

“Yes, he does seem the type, doesn’t he?” Quirrell says without stuttering. My eyebrows disappear in my hair line when I realize that he was fake stuttering this entire time. I’ll give him credit though, he went through this entire school year with a fake stutter and fooled everybody. Realizing what he just said about my head of the house, a frown appears on my face as I try to keep myself from becoming too angry. “Next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, s-s-stuttering Professor Quirrell?” Okay, this guy is officially starting to get on my nerves and that’s saying something. Professor Snape in my opinion isn’t that bad of a guy. I mean, yes, he isn’t the nicest guy around the school, but from the way he interacts with the headmaster makes me believe without any doubt that he wouldn’t go against him. Snape has too much respect for him.

“But that day, during the Quidditch match, Snape tried to kill me,” Harry is still in complete denial that Snape actually has nothing to do with this. Rolling my eyes, I focus on Quirrell’s every single move because if I get any clue that he has his wand, I’m going to surprise attack him. I know for a fact that I can’t actually hurt him, but I can still try to do something to protect us. Maybe, erase his memories and then bolt out of the room.

“No, dear boy. I tried to kill you!” Quirrell shouts and my anger is going into overdrive. This man tried to kill my big brother! Unlike the smart idea of taking out my wand and use some spells, my first instinct is to go the Muggle rout and try to attack him with my fists. With my blood starting to boil, I try to walk towards him, but my brother holds me back. “If Snape’s cloak hadn’t caught fire and broken my eye contact I would have succeeded! Even with Snape muttering his little countercurse.”

Okay, now he has done it! I start to thrash around even more, and a look of pure hatred is permanent on my face. While trying to get away from my brother, I notice a smirk starting to form on that stupid man’s face.

“Well, if you find this so amusing why don’t you come over here and meet my fists!” I growl in my mind before shoving it into his. I don’t know if that will work but I do it anyway. Unfortunately, his behavior doesn’t change so I’m going to assume that my thoughts didn’t reach this horrible man.

“I should have gotten rid of you first, girl. You would have been a lot easier to get rid of,” he says, and my body instantly freezes at his words, “You wouldn’t have been able to scream or fight against me. Unfortunately, I wanted to save the easiest one for last.” H-He is right…. I would have been easier to kill. I can’t even speak let alone scream. My anger is slowly disappearing with fear taking over. I can feel my brother pull me closer to him as he talks again.

“B-But I don’t understand! Snape tried to save me? Why did you try to kill me? Us?” Harry calls to him while I breathe in heavily from all the exertion. My body is slowly starting to get tired, but I force myself to not focus on the tiredness. Even though I am more afraid of Quirrell than I am angry, I continue to glare at him while keeping my hand close to where my wand is.

“I knew you two were a danger to me, especially after Halloween. Well, in the very least I knew that you were a danger to me.”

“Then he must have let the troll in, big brother!” I say through the link and my brother repeats my prediction.

“Very good, Potter, yes. Snape, unfortunately, wasn’t fooled,” Quirrell instantly gets a scowl on his face at the mention of the potion master. My lips slightly twitch in a smirk when I quickly realize that he must have heard Quirrell’s thoughts. “While everyone ran about, he went to the third floor to head me off. He, of course, never trusted me again,” he states as he turns toward the mirror. Of course, he wouldn’t have trusted him again! Only a fool would trust someone who let in the mountain troll and thought that he wouldn’t do it again! I mean, come on! Nobody is that low intelligent! Right before the man in the purple turban starts talking again, my brother hisses in pain again as he holds his scar. “He rarely left me alone, but he doesn’t understand. I’m never alone. Never.”

My brows furrow in confusion at his last words. Is he talking about his religion? No, that can’t be it because he doesn’t seem like the type that would have a religion. After a minute of guessing why he said that, my mind comes up with a blank and I internally just shrug my shoulders.

“Now, what does this mirror do?” the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher asks as he gives his full attention to the mirror. A few seconds pass before he inhales a gasp, “I see what I desire! I can see myself holding the stone, but how do I get it?” His attitude is getting more frustrated and less patient.

“Use the boy!” a raspy voice echoes throughout the room making my brother and I look around the room. Unfortunately, all I can see is the cement walls, stairs, and the pillars that keep the ceiling up. I don’t see anyone else. The professor quickly spins around before raising his hand up to us.

“Come here, Potter! Now!” he shouts and my fear spikes at the anger inside his voice. Yet, at the same time my own anger is starting to rise again. Realizing that my brother is starting to go to the mirror, I grab his arm and pull him back towards me. I frantically shake my head from side to side as I keep glaring at the adult male. Harry grabs my hand again and pulls me along with him as he walks toward the Mirror of Erised again. Keeping my eyes on Quirrell the whole time, I can feel my fear and anger levels rise as we get closer to him. Right as we are in front of the mirror, my body is almost at the level of “fight or flight” and I’m kind of leaning towards fighting him. “Tell me, what do you see?”

As my brother is looking into the mirror, I notice that the adult is completely focused on him. Taking my chance, I slowly move away from them both and go behind the mirror. Thankfully, neither of them noticed that I have disappeared, and I take the opportunity to take a quiet deep breath in. Okay, now is my chance to come up with a plan to get my brother and I out of this situation. I mean, for goodness sake I am in Slytherin! I can come up with a plan to be sly and sneaky. Think, think, think!

“What is it? What do you see?” Quirrell’s shout startles me making me jump slightly. Keeping my breath slow and even, I listen to my brother’s response as I continue to come up with a plan.

“I’m shaking hands with Dumbledore! I’ve won the house cup,” my twin’s responds to him. From the shaking and stuttering in his voice, I know that my brother is lying, and my mind briefly stops to think about what he actually saw.

“He lies! Use the girl to get him to talk,” the voice whispers throughout the room again. At the mention of me, I stop breathing for a second before I continue to stay as quiet as possible. The rustling of cloth makes my eyes widen and I start to pray that he doesn’t look behind the mirror.

“Girl! Where are you?” he shouts, and I cover my mouth with my hand to keep my breathing as quiet as possible. Instead of actually looking for me, I hear a little bit more rustling before a grunt is coming from him, “It seems, Potter, that your own sister would abandon you.” I frantically shake my head and hope that my brother knows that I would never do that. Before anything else is said, the disembodied voice appears again but this time it sounds like it has had enough.

“Let me speak to him,” the voice says, and I realize that I’m about to meet the person that somehow knows when someone is a lie. I wonder if this person has the same ability as Professor Snape. No, if that is the truth then the person would know that I am still here.

“Master, you are not strong enough,” I hear Professor Quirrell’s submissive voice say, but the voice doesn’t listen to his servant.

“I have strength enough for thisssss,” the person says, and I notice that his sentence ends like a snake hissing. Taking the chance, I quietly sneak my head out from behind the mirror, and I watch as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher slowly unwind his turban from around his head. Seeing some movement out of the corner of my eye, I look over to see my brother looking frightened while stepping back towards the staircase. Feeling bad that I left him alone, I turn back towards the adult and realize that he is taking the last part off his head. Moving my head towards behind the mirror again, I can’t believe my eyes as I see a second face on the back of Quirrell’s head. My heartbeat quickens as I hide behind the mirror again. Oh, my Godric! How is that possible?!

“Harry Potter,” the voice, person, face says, and I can feel frightened tears are cascading down my face. Now, I am truly sorry that I left my brother alone, but I thought I was doing the right thing. The voice breaks me out of my guilt, but is quickly replaced with even more fear, “…we meet again.” There is only one person that would be meeting us again.

“Voldemort,” Harry whispers and my blood runs cold. Gulping down my fear and saliva, I slowly inch my face around the mirror, so I can peek to see what is going on. The first thing that I notice is that Voldemort’s face is watching my brother through the mirror.

“Yessss. You see what I’ve become? See what I must do to survive? Live off another. A mere parasite. Unicorn blood may sustain me, but it cannot give me a body of my own. There is something, however, that can. That something is, conveniently enough, lies in your pocket,” Voldemort says, and my brother looks even more alarmed. Quickly looking down towards his pocket, he turns around and starts to rush for the stairs that lead out of the room. Cheering him on in my mind, I watch him take a few steps before I realize that if he leaves I’ll be all alone with Voldemort, the most dangerous man of all time. Before I could worry about that more, I hear Voldemort shout at Quirrell, “No! Stop him!”

As my brother is rushing up the stairs, I watch as Quirrell snaps his fingers and fire appears all around the room making it impossible for anyone to escape. Unfortunately, the fires roaring to life out of no where makes a small shriek escape my lips, and I quickly duck behind the mirror again. At this point my heart is beating so fast that I might actually have a heart attack.

“Don’t be a fool. Why suffer a horrific death when you can join me and live?” Voldemort asks my brother and I frantically shake my head. My brother will never agree to joining the same man that killed our parents.

“Never!” Harry shouts and I smile knowing that I am correct. We may be children, but it doesn’t mean that we have low intelligence. Unfortunately, before I can think further I hear the bone chilling chuckle of the murderous man, well face.

“Bravery. Your parents had it too. Tell me, Harry, would you like to see your mother and father again? One big happy family with them and your sister. Together we can bring them back. Just give me the stone!” Voldemort tries to persuade my brother, and the offer is tempting. I mean, throughout my life I just wanted for my parents to be here. To be one big happy family. The offer is slowly losing its gleam when something he said struck me. He wants the stone and then he will become an entire being again. My brain starts shouting at me that he is a liar. This man has killed many people including my parents and I wouldn’t put it past him to lie.

“Brother! Don’t do this! He is lying to you. Mom and Dad would not want you to bring them back by giving him the stone,” I urgently say through the mind link as my body is starting to get drowsier from all of the emotions and stress from today. Shaking my head, I peek out from behind the mirror again and I watch with pride as my brother looks at the man with hatred.

“You liar!” my brother shouts, but instead of attacking my brother or anything, Voldemort’s eyes snap to me and I gasp in fear. As I start to duck behind the mirror again, I feel a firm hand grasp my forearm and yank me out of my hiding spot. A whimper escapes my lips as I try to get my arm free from Quirrell/Voldemort.

“Potter, give me the stone! Or your sister is going to die,” Voldemort shouts to my brother and my eyes widen even more. Making my moves more frantic, I shout for my brother through the link and I can see him moving closer in the mirror.

“Fine! I’ll give you the stone, but you have to leave my twin sister alone!” he says as he stops a few feet away from us. Not focusing on them, I continue to through my weight away from the despicable man when a burning starts to happen around my wrists. Hissing in pain, I glance down at my wrists to realize that it is those old looking bracelets that I got for Christmas are heating up. As they continue to heat up, I can feel courage and anger rising just as fast. With my fear disappearing, I look over at my brother and not struggle anymore. I realize that he is about to give Voldemort the Sorcerer’s Stone! Glaring, I look up at Quirrell’s face and decide to do what I have been wanting to do since I have arrived. With my right hand raised, I punch Professor Quirrell straight in the jaw sending his head straight back and his grip disappears from my arm as he touches his face.

Grabbing my big brother, we take a few steps away from Voldemort/Quirrell, and I look at my brother’s hand to, thankfully, see the stone. Smiling in relief, I focus back on the adult male and I realize that Voldemort has finally had enough.

“Kill them!” he shouts and Quirrell jumps into the air before gliding toward us. He wraps his hands around our necks and slams us into the stone steps behind us. Unfortunately, when my body met the steps, my head slams into them making my vision blur. Combine the blurry vision with the air circulation cut off, it isn’t a very good scenario. Starting to gasp in no air, I grab onto the arm and scratch at it hoping that the pain will make him get off me. As I start to black out from the lack of oxygen, I hear a faint sizzling from beside me, but I mostly hear my frantic heartbeat pounding in my ears. Some shouting is quickly followed by the sizzling and the hand around my neck is quickly taken away from my throat.

Sucking in air, I grab my throat as I cough at the soreness. My vision is still slightly blurry, but I can make out the figure of Quirrell a few feet away from us. As my air starts to come back, the pounding of my injured head makes me alternate between my throat and head. The muffled voice of Voldemort makes me whimper in fear, and I try to fold into myself to not get hurt more. Glancing up, I watch as my vision focuses again, and my brother rushes toward Quirrell. As he reaches the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Harry places his hands over Quirrell’s face and steam along with the sizzling noise appears underneath his hands. Looking closer, I realize that the professor’s, well ex-professor’s, skin is turning into dry dirt or clay. Quirrell is screaming in pain, but my brother doesn’t stop holding onto his face. I’ve never seen or read about magic that is anything like this. Finally, my brother pushes Quirrell/Voldemort away into a wall and his face is entire all cracked with some of it falling off. He isn’t shouting anymore nor, can he even see, but he still tries to get my brother. Quirrell reaches his arm out for my brother and starts to walk, but he doesn’t even step a few feet before he crumbles into dust with only his clothes left behind.

Big brother stands there staring at the remains of our old professor before another whimper of pain causes him to turn toward me. He rushes toward me and kneels in front of me.

“Sister, are you alright?” he asks, but I shake my head. Unfortunately, that only causes my throat to hurt more and that makes tears fall from all the pain. The tears are not only from the pain, but also from the relief that my brother defeated Voldemort again. He looks sad as he looks next to me and grabs the scarlet Sorcerer’s Stone. As if it is a peace offering, he gives me the stone and I give him a painfilled smile as I look down at the stone. “Sister, where are you hurt? The neck?”

“Y-Yes, but my head is also hurting from hitting the stairs,” I say through the link, and I can feel a slight pressure on my forehead as he kisses my head. Looking up at him, he gives me a sad smile before holding his hand out for me to take. Wiping my tears away, I grab his hand and let him help me up from the ground. Still feeling guilty about hiding behind the mirror, I hug him while repeating sorry over and over again.

“Why are you sorry? You didn’t do anything wrong,” he whispers as he hugs me back.

“B-But I hid and left you all alone. I thought that if I could hide from them then I could come up with a plan, but I couldn’t think of anything. I’m sorry, big brother,” I say in his mind as I continue to hold onto him.

“Anastasia, I know that you would never leave me. I understand that you thought that you were doing the right thing. I’m not mad or upset with you,” he says as he pulls away from the hug. He gives me a smile which makes me give a happy smile in return.

Unfortunately, our sibling moment is ruined when I notice something forming from the ashes of Quirrell. Pointing at the ash cloud, my brother looks over just in time to see the face of Voldemort appear in the cloud of ash making us both pale in fear. The dead soul of Voldemort starts screaming before rushing at us and ends up going through us. I can hear my brother yell as I scream in my head before we both fall and land against the cold stone floor. Big brother ends up getting knocked out while my head hits the floor for the second time, which makes me feel like my head is being split into two pieces. Just as I’m about to fall unconscious, I hear footsteps rushing down the stairs and heat diminishing from my face. Sadly, before I can see who it is I fall into unconsciousness with my twin brother. The last thought that passes through my mind is, “Did we do our parents proud?”

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, readers! I just want to disclaim that I wrote this back in my sophomore year of high school (I'm sophomore in college now). There are some grammar mistakes and one part that has an inconsistency in emotions from the main character. BUT the series does get better! Please, try out this series knowing that it does get better. Also, I would love any criticism or (even better) comments! Enjoy and have a great day!


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